Of Mice and Men...

The novella “Of Mice and Men” is written by John Steinbeck, who describes lives during the great depression. People’s lives were hard at that time, for there were many dreamers but only a few achievers. “Of Mice and Men” will bring you down to a exciting adventure.Within those dreamer is Lennie and George. Those two travel together, and they are just like the other guys in the society. George dream is to be his own boss at a farm, and Lennie dream is to tend rabbit. But, at the will include a truth that is cruel, but very common in that age.The central conflict of “ Of Mice and Men” is Character vs Society. Even though there are plenty of other conflicts, they will eventually add up back to the original conflict. The conflict, however, revolves around Lennie.

Lennie is problem all start out by George spoiling him. He wouldn’t be like this if George did not spoil Lennie. At the end of the story. Lennie half-hallucinate half-reminiscence:

“When he got a piece a pie you always got half or more’n half. An’ if they was any ketchup why he’d give it all to you.”(101)

George has been very lenient with Lennie, lenient enough to give Lennie some of his share of food.

Also, during Lennie first meeting with Curley he was all protected by George. When he did not talk back to Curley, Curley try to get Lennie talk, but he was all protected by George:

“George said, ‘S’pose he don’t want to talk?’ Curley lashed his body around. ‘By christ’  he’s gotta talk when he’s spoke to. What the hell are you gettin’ into it for?’”(25)

If Lennie could not talk to Curley back there, then Lennie won’t properly die at the end of the book because Lennie could become friend with Curley.

What this mean is that Lennie slowly lives by depending on George without slowly being independent. If Lennie can’t be independent, then Lennie would never survive by himself in the Society because he lack common sense that did not develop because he was all spoiled and protected. In the end everything is affected by Society.

Also, despite being protected by George, Lennie and George also have a dream that eventually led to their downfall of their friendships. When George and Lennie were talking about their future:

“George went on. ‘With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys get in jail they can rot for all anybody give a damn. But not us.’”(14)

Despite their dreamking big George couldn’t fulfill their promise to each other because George already knew in the back of his head that dream will never come true. Then after Lennie broke Curley’s wife neck and George and Candy are discussing about their future:

“ George said softly, ‘- I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would.’”(94)

This quote show that from the very beginning George never expect that their dream would come true, but after Lennie asking to hear it so many times cause him to think that it might happen. George and Lennie are just like other guy on the branches, but they had believed in a delusion that give them a false hope. So in other word George and Lennie are just like other thugs in the society.This mean that their fate was affected by the society from the start.

Despite being protected and having false hope to believe in. Lennie have another characteristics that eventually led to his downfall. Lennie is physically strong, yet mentally weak. During the time whenever he was working at the barn. Slim and George was discussing about Lennie. Slim was really surprise by Lennie physical strength:

“‘It wasn’t nothing,’ Slim repeated. ‘Say, you sure was right about him. maybe he ain’t bright, but I never seen such a worker. He damn near kill his partner buckin’ barley. There ain’t nobody can keep up with him. God awmighty I never seen such a strong guy.’”(39)

This quote shows that Lennie has a amazing gift that grant him a physical ability that is stronger than normal. However, like all power, if you can’t control it then that power would cause harm to others around you. This is exactly what happening to Lennie. He couldn’t control his strength and has cause a few incident such as destroying Curley hand or breaking Curley wife neck. That strength of Lennie was one of the reason he died at the end.

Another characteristic weakness of Lennie is that Lennie has a unusual weak mental ability. Lennie intelligence was was below average of a normal human, and thus led to many things happen to him because of his inability to cope and think. When Lennie hallucinate and has a conversation with his grandmother:

“Lennie moaned with grief. ‘I know, Aunt Clara, ma’am. I’ll go right off in the hills an’ I’ll fin’ a cave an’ I’ll live there so I won’t be no more trouble to George.’”(101)

This quote shows that Lennie is trying to run away from his problem. This mean that mentally he can’t take the stress. This represent Lennie inability to survive alone in the society.

    So, the many types of conflict we see in “Of Mice and Men” are important because they add up back to the main conflict which is a character vs society. This conflict is significent because in our society there are many people like George and Lennie, people start out with dream and friendships. But, at the end dreamers will remain dreamers and left behind by the cold-cruel common sense/survival of the fittest in the society.