Lennie Friendship Flaws

Radio host Bernard Meltzer once said, “A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked.” In other words, in a true friendship flaws don’t matter. In his novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck tells the story of Lennie and George, two characters who remain friends regardless of any trouble or flaws. Lennie acts as a child and he doesn’t remember what George tells him. He has a mental problem and he’s dumb. He has a smart friend named George. Lennie does anything George tells him to do. They are great friends. Lennie usually gets in trouble where they are working in the farms and George leaves him. After Lennie’s Aunt Clara dies, George and Lennie go work at ranches to get the American Dream of building their own ranch and house. George protects Lennie from painful deaths, protect Lennie from others, and from the law locking him up. George’s decision to shoot Lennie is not justified. However, he knows it was an accident. Lennie likes to touch soft things and Curley’s wife told him he could touch her hair.

A friend protects one another even if there is a conflict in between. Who would shoot their best friend that has been there with them since day one? Would someone who is friends with them kill them even if they know they are innocent? What is the real definition of a friendship? Protecting Lennie might be difficult, but that was George’s best friend. George protected him from getting hanged and dying little by little. George had also protected Lennie from getting into conflicts by telling him to not say a word or to not talk to anybody so they wouldn’t get in trouble. Finally, George protected him from the law because if he wouldn’t have cared for him then he wouldn’t have been with him and just gave him to the law so he could be caged. Is Bernard Meltzer correct of his definition of a true friend or is there something that should be changed from the perspective of the friendship between