Love Over Lust
Anyone can start a relationship, but maintaining a healthy one does not happen as easy. People grow apart, people change, or they simply lose touch. This is not true with George and Lennie, the two men in John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men.’ In the novel, the close friends find a job together and work as hard as they can to reach their goal of a house of their own. This is the only thing that gives George, the smaller one of the duo, hope. George makes an enemy of Curley, the ranch owner’s son, but continues to work there to obtain their dream until an unfortunate mishap happens with Curley’s wife and Lennie. Now Lennie is forced out of the ranch into a short period of hiding, ultimately ending by George shooting Lennie.
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The time they spent together helped them build a solid relationship. “It ain’t so funny, him and me goin’ around together...I knowed his aunt Clara...When his aunt Clara died Lennie just come along with me out workin’. Got kinda used to each other after a while.”(pg.39) In this passage from the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ written by John Steinbeck, George explains how his and Lennie’s relationship came to be. They’ve been with each other for a long time which strengthens their already tight bond. Since George started looking after Lennie when his aunt died, George was the closest Lennie had to family and started to develop as a parental figure in his life. (you need more here) Unlike the two men’s life long friendship, Romeo and Juliet only were with each other for about 4 days. They didn’t have the benefit of knowing each other their whole life. Although it could be argued they did, they knew each other as enemies, and never saw or spoke to each other. This worked against them because they did not really know what the other was like, they were complete strangers to each other while they were involved in their relationship. They based their relationship off of what they saw instead of basing it off of personality and character. Romeo and Juliet did not know each other as well as George and Lennie knew each other, thus making the relationship in ‘Of Mice …show more content…
The “Of Mice and Men” duo demonstrated what it was like to have a trustworthy and caring friend while “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” demonstrated what it was like to dive into a rushed relationship based on the eye’s first impression. Romeo and Juliet’s relationship was not love, it was lust, while George and Lennie’s relationship was pure and