There is nothing more heartbreaking than the death of a close friend--but imagine being the one to kill them. In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, George Milton and Lennie Small share a complex relationship with one another that ultimately ends in tragedy. Lennie is like a child in an adult’s body, while George acts as a guide for him. In this essay, the two of them will be contrasted against one another to show their many traits and how it affects their relationship. The unlikely duo have many similarities, despite their stark differences. Many of them are situational; for example, the two are both migrant workers from Salinas, CA. Neither of them had a family to go to, so they just have each other. The most important of these likenesses, however, would be their same end goal--to have their own plot of land where they can do whatever they please. This is described in detail in multiple parts of the novella, such in this quote where George says “...we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and--” (Steinbeck 14) and “We’d jus’ live there. We’d belong there. There wouldn’t be no more runnin’ round the country...we’d have our own place where we belonged and not sleep in no bunkhouse.” (Steinbeck 57) Both George and Lennie, unfortunately, have …show more content…
The most notable of these differences would be their size--Lennie is described as “a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes…” (Steinbeck 2) and George “small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes…” (Steinbeck 2) George is more practical than his companion, Lennie, who is more of a dreamer. George is an independent man, being followed by the helpless Lennie who depends on him. Due to Lennie’s mental handicap, he has trouble in social situations and expresses a childlike, naive nature. Despite these differences in personality, they continued to stick together til the