Steinbeck demonstrates the value of friendship, camaraderie, and shared trust throughout Of Mice and Men, even for a group of men who have been taught and demonstrated that assisting one another or putting one's own needs before others makes one weak or vulnerable. One of the ways that Steinbeck is trying to describe the theme of friendship is with George and Lennie. The book starts off with George and Lennie walking towards a work ranch to earn some money. They make a pit stop in the evening to eat, sleep, and get ready for what the next day has for them. This scene demonstrates the theme because it shows that they have a friendship going because they are trying to earn money together to get their own place, even though most of society does everything with no companions. Also, Lennie and George tend to argue a lot when they disagree with something. This is not surprising because they are the opposite type of people. Although there is a lot of dispute between the two, …show more content…
Curly sees Lennie and starts bullying him because he talks slowly. Curly wants to fight him but Georget tells him to back off. I picked this scene to show my theme because George is defending Lennie by telling Curley to back off because Lennie doesn’t want to fight him. Later on in the book Curley confronts Lennie again. But this time he doesn’t back down and starts to fight Lennie. At first he wasn’t defending himself but when George told him to fight back he broke his hand. It may seem like George made the wrong decision by telling Lennie to fight back because he hurt someone. But, George was trying to teach Lennie how to defend himself in those kinds of situations. In other words, George was just trying to help Lennie out in the long run. In conclusion, the contentious relationship between Lennie and Curley provides Steinbeck with yet another opportunity to explore this crucial