Lack Of Friendship In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In the era of the Great Depression, the lack of friendship increased and therefore accumulated the amount of unstable relationships. In his novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck introduced different friendships within his characters using dramatic and situational irony. Many of his character had unstabilized relationships with other characters. Throughout the book, the friendships were unhealthy and unstable due to forced connections lack of human connections and lack of self-control. Forced connections are unhealthy and especially in the case of Lennie and George. George is forced to take responsibility of Lennie instead of having his own life. “ ‘God, you’re a lot of trouble,’ said George. ‘I could get along so easy and so nice if

Lennie enjoys the feeling of soft objects. “ Just strokin’ it’ … ‘Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress … pet it like it was a mouse’ …”(P.9 and 11). He doesn’t have a stable mentality and his relaxation and mollifies are found in the softness of clothing, fabrics, fur and hair. As he loses control, he grips the objects as a child would grip a toy. This is implied with foreshadowing and mostly in flashbacks. “She jerk… Lennie’s fingers closed … hang on… Lennie was in panic…” (P.91). Lennie harms others, such as animals and people out of panic and anger. Most people or animals writhed their way out of Lennie’s hurtful and strengthful grasp as he loses his self-control. Thus, the self-control and impulse veers out of hand and places harm in everyone’s and everything’s way.

The three main relationships or connections in the novel are Lennie and George’s forced friendship, Curley’s lack of human connection of friendship with loneliness, and Lennie's lack of self-control connection. In the forced connection, Lennie and George constantly have disagreements and arguments, Curley’s lack of human connection caused external conflict within the workers. Lennie’s self-control places, people around him and the animals within his radius in danger's way. Healthy relationships can caused unity; however, the unhealthy friendships can be destroyed and cause harm and death such as in this