Lennie and Cosmo are similar in many ways but also very different with the fact that Cosmo is a fairy and his show is a cartoon. Lennie is a strong, large and slow man. Lennie can’t tell right from wrong, he often has pets that he kills because he pets them too hard. Towards the end of Of Mice and Men he actually pets a woman too hard and ends up killing her. Lennie, because of his mild mental disability depends completely on George; pretty much to survive.
Steinbeck carries this theme throughout Of Mice and Men, the Great Depression what a dark and lonely time in America’s history and Steinbeck was trying to tell us it did not have to be this way. People can always reach out and develop relationships in order to stave of the “meanness” of isolation. Prejudices in the 1930’s kept people isolated itinerant worker life harsh and kept people on move and on their own.Tired of constantly reminding Lennie of things he should remember, George gets quickly angry when Lennie forgets to get the firewood, for example, and instead goes after the dead mouse. On the other hand, George's anger is quickly under control, and he blames himself for scolding Lennie. In fact, Steinbeck makes clear that, despite his complaining and frustration, George looks out for Lennie and genuinely cares for him.
George may do things to Lennie which Lennie finds "mean", like alaways taking away dead mice from him, but unlike Lennie, the reader can understand why he does this. If the mouse's body was infected, then it would do damage to Lennie as the mouse "ain't fresh". This clearly shows that George cares about Lennie. George also cares about Lennie physically and can't stand to see him hurt, as he tell Lennie to "get him [Curley]" when Curley is attacking him, and also immediatly defends Lennie when Curley verbally attacks him - "Lennie didn't do nothing to him". All of this shows that George is a caring person who is loyal to Lennie and can't stand to see him bullied or hurt.
The mice are what Lennie remembers his Aunt Clara by, and that’s the only thing he has to remember her by are those mice. The mice also show that Lennie hurts things he loves, not intentionally, but that’s what he does. Since he likes to pet soft things, it leads him to kill his mice, his puppy, and Curley’s wife. Like Lennie, mice suffer because they’re small; mice’s physical smallness leaves it in danger, just like Lennie’s mental smallness does the same. Lennie’s puppy represents the victory of the strong over the weak.
“Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you hard. The death of the puppy is an accident since Lennie is not able to measure or control his strength, killing the puppy unintentionally. Lennie being unable to measure his strength is one reason to why other deaths throughout the story occur.
Dreams were rarely obtained due to the harsh circumstances. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, a majority of the most neglected characters carry foolish dreams that are out their reach; from owning rabbits to becoming a movie star. The lower class people do not realize the reality that surrounds them. Steinbeck implies that dreams never come true; no matter how hard one tries or believes. He demonstrates this by utilizing Lennie and Curley’s wife’s crushed ambitions.
These events like in “Kaffir Boy” where the narrator’s is randomly raided by police at any given time. The narrator has no choice or idea when the raids will happen. Another example of an event caused by chance is from “Of Mice and Men” Lennie was petting Curley’s wife a little too hard and he eventually kills her on accident. This by accident as he was just trying to stop her from screaming and gripped her too hard. These examples did not let the person who was affected by it to have a choice, They simply happened.
After working all day in the fields candy’s (another worker) dog who is old and smells, walks into the room making everyone else angry this shows foreshadow because putting the dog down represents the responsibility of having to care for something and with candy it is his dog where he has to have its best interests in heart. Then later in the passage candy says to George how he should have shot his dog instead of letting Carlson does it. This foreshadows the end of the book where George ends up having to shoot lennie to keep him from suffering just like candy and his dog where both parties just wanted their friend to have a happy ending to their life. This foreshadowing contributes to the book in the long run because at that point in the book you know what George is going to have to do at the end of the book and this shows how the character is going to have to change before the end because from this text you know that something is going to happen between George and lennie and this foreshadowing crates suspense because you know it’s going to happen it’s just you don’t know when causing the reader to always be on the guard for when it does creating a dark and suspenseful atmosphere for the remainder of the
George and Lennie know that their dream will take time and hard work. George and Lennie in the story Of Mice and Men, reveal the challenges and struggles one must go through because the American Dream is so difficult to attain. John Steinbeck wanted to show you the amount of work and heart you have to give to conquer your dreams; that most people cannot overcome the work you have to go through because they are too lazy or that something goes wrong and it is no longer attainable. For George, it was the death of Lennie that made the American Dream unattainable. Overall, the American Dream is different for everyone, but it is still a great challenge and it is hard to accomplish for
In the novel “Of Mice and Men”, George has dreamed of having his own ranch with his friend Lennie. “Of Mice and Men” ends in tragedy. George feels compelled to mercifully kill his friend and companion, Lennie, in order to save him from a brutal death. The death of Lennie also marks the death of the beautiful dream they have been nurturing. George then realizes that having a companion is very important in this evil world and that even though you work hard to reach a certain goal, it may not come true.