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Comparing The Dog In John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men'

444 Words2 Pages

The Human Dog Thesis: In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows how friendships are not always equal but are formed from necessity and responsibility through the friendship of George and Lennie when George takes the responsibility of taking care of Lennie and when George took responsibility and gave Lennie an effective reason to follow directions and remember. George was responsible of taking care of Lennie. They became friends because through their relationship they realized how much they need each other. George brings responsibility to the table. George is giving his mentally handicapped friend a future and sacrificing his future to better his friends, “Guys like us, that work on ranches… work up a stake and they go inta town and blow their stake… they don’t got nothin’ to look ahead to… with us it ain’t like that. We got a future” (Steinbeck 13,14). George is showing Lennie how …show more content…

George treated Lennie like a dog. If the dog is bad, you take away its toy. If Lennie is bad, George takes away the dream of tending the rabbits. If the dog is good, you reward him with a toy. If Lennie is good, George rewards him with visions of tending the rabbits. This is what motivates Lennie to do good and not intend harm, “Good boy! That's fine, Lennie!... I can let you tend the rabbits… ‘specially if you remember as good as that” (Steinbeck 15). The idea of being able to tend the rabbits, if he is good, encourages Lennie to remember things. George brings responsibility to the relationship through this because he is rewarding Lennie for being good and disciplining him if he is bad, “George ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits now… he said if I do any more bad things he ain’t gonna let me tend the rabbits” (Steinbeck 87). Lennie does not want any trouble so he can tend the rabbits, therefore keeping him out of trouble. It also makes Lennie aware of when he is in the wrong and motivates him to fix what he has

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In John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men”, Lennie and George travel together to work. They discuss the trouble they experience with Lennie's touching things he shouldn't and how that forces them to run, hide, and constantly search for work. Throughout the book, Steinbeck gives just a small picture of all the trouble Lennie has caused and how George continues to guide him to get by. A problem with a girl leads us to chapter 1 and 6, and how they share in setting, but George and Lennie's interactions differ. The similarities and differences of chapter 1 and 6 show how Lennie and George's cohesive friendship with a bright future develops into a loving bond that had to end.

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Lennie constantly fears that his actions will anger George, who will then punish him by taking away his rabbit-managing privileges. During the debacle with Curley's wife, he says “‘George gonna say I done a bad thing. He gonna ain’t gonna me tend no rabbits’”(91). Lennie represents innocence and

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Then, he hallucinated his Aunt Clara who died and imagined her saying she is the one that caused George a hard life. Lennie was trying to say he tried and tried and now he couldn’t tend no rabbits. Following the hallucination of his Aunt Clara, there appeared a giant rabbit that was capable of talking. The giant rabbit put Lennie down by speaking bad about George hurting him, leaving him, and he has no chance of tending rabbits.

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1135 Words | 5 Pages

Near the end of the movie, Curley wife came into the barn to try and chat up Lennie, but Lennie told Curley’s wife that he wasn't allowed to talk to her because George told him she might cause some problems. (Of Mice and Men) At this point, Lennie had just killed his puppy on accident and was already worried about how mad George would be, so he didn't want to add fuel to the fire by talking to Curley’s wife. This is significant because it displays the impact of the dream farm on Lennie. He is worried that by disappointing George he wont be allowed to tend the rabbits, so he tries his hardest to stay out of

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668 Words | 3 Pages

George and Lennie seem like an entirely contrasting pair at first glance, but further observation yields several noteworthy similarities. Most notably, they are both driven by the same ultimate aspiration in life—to live independently on their own land. Constantly, Lennie asks George whether he will still be allowed to tend to the rabbits on their future farm despite his missteps. After Lennie horrifyingly disfigures Curley’s hand, his first and only question to George is about the rabbits, not about the egregious act he has just committed. Finally, George and Lennie are devoted to each other through whatever may come their way.

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1036 Words | 5 Pages

Huck has just arrived at Aunt Sally’s house. He is mistaken for Tom Sawyer, their nephew who they were expecting to arrive soon. Jim, the runaway slave who Huck has helped escape to freedom, has been detained by Sally and Silas Phelps, and is currently locked away in a shed. The following day, Sally and Silas head into town to the Sheriff’s office to report/turn-in Jim. Huck has been left alone at the Phelps’ home, with Jim still locked away in the shed.

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578 Words | 3 Pages

An old, lame dog struggles to follow Candy into the bunkhouse. The dog merely appears to accompany Candy, easily being forgotten among Steinbeck’s far more intriguing narrative. However, this initially uninteresting dog does serve a purpose. In his story Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck constantly uses animals and animal imagery to suggest larger ideas, further developing characters. Steinbeck uses Candy’s dog to support his statements about power and moral responsibility by associating the dog to other characters, making his themes more evident.

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It also shows George taking care of Lennie more to get people to enjoy it more and they put George and Lennie more as a team. The book is about telling a story through Steinbeck’s eyes only. Steinbeck wants the readers to read about how George is harder on Lennie because George has goals too. George understand reality more and thinks being harder on him is the best

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452 Words | 2 Pages

Lennie was a young man who was very tall and much bigger than George, they travelled together with no transportation and no home. Lennie was always feeling alone and as if George never really listened to him. Most of the time Lennie was scared that he would mess up something and George would get mad. All that Lennie wanted in life was to have his dream come true and to tend the rabbits. “But you ain’t gonna get in no trouble, because if you do, I won’t let you tend the rabbits” (16)

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695 Words | 3 Pages

Lennie’s mental difficulties often frustrate George, and at times he lashes out at Lennie. When Lennie complains, George explodes, “‘Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy’”(Steinbeck 11). Lennie doesn’t understand that George can’t give him everything. At times, George gets angry that he always has to support Lennie, “‘You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get’”(11).

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974 Words | 4 Pages

Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it.” (Steinbeck 14) Lennie, who is a big man; that does not know his own strength, wants to be on a farm with his companion, George. He wants the farm to have different things such as a garden, pigs, cows and most of all rabbits. He likes rabbits because they are soft, so he can pet them, but big enough to not get hurt when he pets them.

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1187 Words | 5 Pages

Demanding things out of Lennie does not show him anything it just tells him to stop what he is doing and sometimes that does not help. Lennie and George’s relationship is more of a danger to one another than it is a good relationship. George makes Lennie feel guilty for everything he does. George is trying to discipline Lennie in a way that does not

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942 Words | 4 Pages

Because of Lennie’s mental state, he does things that he can’t control. He kills mice, a puppy, and even a woman. In the 1930’s, when this story takes place, they didn’t have mental hospitals, and if they did, they wouldn’t be for a lower-class worker like Lennie. No one cared about them. Lennie was too strong and he didn’t know how to control what he did enough to not kill those animals.

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661 Words | 3 Pages

If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won’t get no job” (Steinbeck 6). George is very directive over Lennie, and does not want him to mess up anything. Lennie listens to George because he does not know any better, and is like a little brother who wants to please his

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1023 Words | 5 Pages

While the rabbits for Lennie represent such a positive feature in his life, ironically, they also act as a parallel too. Lennie admires the rabbits and often ponders of taking care of them, but his inability to be gentle around other animals in general reflects the downfall of his fondness for them in the

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