An Analysis of George in "Of Mice and Men".

Essay by Icedragon256High School, 10th grade October 2005

download word file, 2 pages 5.0

Downloaded 20 times

George is a caring man despite his outward behavior and appearance. After Lennie's Aunt Clara died he agreed to watch after Lennie. He stuck to his promise and was with Lennie up until he died. George is driven by this promise and his desire for the simple life; neither of these drives met any good however. Lennie was so helpless in the face of the world and its dangers that he needed a character like George to enable him to survive.

Lennie's friendship is very important to George; it is one of George's driving motivations. George outlines their friendship early in the book with the following quote. "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. . . . 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 gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us." (Steinbeck) George and Lennie had something many of the other characters did not, friendship. The other characters' problems mostly stemmed from loneliness, and George could avoid many of these problems.

Another Quote showing a motivation behind George's actions show how he wants the simple life. "S'pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn thing." Old Candy nodded in appreciation of the idea. "We'd just go to her," George said. "We wouldn't ask nobody if we could. Jus' say, 'We'll go to her,' an' we would. Jus' milk the cow and sling some grain to...