Relationships In Hinton's Of Mice And Men

SE Hinton’s book, The Outsiders is about the relationship between two different social classes seen through the tension between two groups of boys. The story is told through the eyes of Ponyboy, a boy living in Oklahoma in the 1960’s. John Steinbeck’s book, Of Mice and Men is set in the Great Depression of the 1930’s on a ranch in Salinas, California. The book features Lennie Small and George Milton, ranch hands who have been friends for a long time who live with the struggles of working on a ranch during the Great Depression. In Hinton’s and Steinbeck’s novels there are many complex relationships. There are a variety of ways to be a quality friend or family member in The Outsiders and Of Mice and Men, and there are helpful lessons to be

In The Outsiders, Dally’s only real friend is Johnny. To other characters in the book Dally is a mean, and stoic person. Dally cares about Johnny because he sees himself in Johnny and hopes that he can help him have a less dangerous life than Johnny. In the novel Dally says to Johnny “Johnny I ain’t mad at you, I just don’t want you to get hurt” (p 89) which shows his deep caring towards Johnny. Despite Dally’s wish to keep Johnny safe, Johnny dies trying to save people from a fire in a church. After hearing about Johnny’s death Dally is devastated with grief and ends up getting killed by the police after stealing from a store. Darry says to Ponyboy, ”He’s just robbed a grocery store and the cops are after him.” (p. 153). There deaths are ironic because they both die trying to help someone else Johnny those in the fire and Dally in trying to help Johnny. If Dally had been close to others besides Johnny he would have been able to seek support and comfort from others perhaps allowing him to cope with Johnny’s death from the fire. Through Dally and Johnny’s relationship the reader learns that it is always good to have more than one friend or not to put all your eggs in one

Curley’s wife is the only woman on the ranch. Steinbeck depicts her as unimportant because she goes unnamed throughout the entire book, only referred to as Curley’s wife. Son of the boss of the ranch, Curley, is always looking for a fight. In fact, Curley only talks to his wife about who he wants to fight, nothing about what she cares about he feels. An example of a relationship without caring or connection to the other person. His anger and desire to fight is seen when he fights Lennie, a mentally handicapped man on the ranch. Curley’s wife does not care about Curley which is seen when she appears happy when Lennie breaks Curley’s hand in their fight. Curley’s wife says “think I don’t like to talk to somebody every once in awhile” (p.77) meaning that she feels being with Curley is like talking to no one, because they never talk about her feelings or concerns about life. Another example of their uncaring relationship is when Curley’s wife dies and when he sees her dead body is not sad about losing her but simply uses this as a reason to fight the person who did it. This is a couple where this no caring for one another which leads to a relationship that existed in misery and could not be considered “a lasting