Lennie and George, migratory workers in the
California fields,
cherish the dream
of having a little farm of their own where as
Lennie's refrain
has it, they can "Live of the fatta o' the land."
George yearns for
his own place where he could bring in his own
crops instead of
working for another. A place where he could get
what comes up
from the ground for himself. He wants the full
reward of his own
labor. He seeks independence, and to leave his
dependent life
completely. These two men seek a status in society,
they feel as
though they need to belong, and their dream of having a
farm gives them
that feeling that someday their satisfaction will
come.
Unfortunately our dreams don't always coincide with reality.
George and Lennie are two incongruent
characters, where one is
small, alert, and
clever; the other huge, and powerful, however,
bears the mind of
a child. They compliment eachother in many
ways, but deep
within they have an inseparable relationship.
"Sometimes
you just get used to a guy." The
two have grown
together, and
they live a part of eachother. George, being the leader
of the two, has
the responsibility of caring for Lennie, who is much
like a child in
his ways, however, far more dangerous than his inner
character reflects.
George has to keep a watchful eye over Lennie,
for without
constant supervision, Lennie would inadvertently kill
anything he
touches.
George has towards Lennie the tenderness and
protective instinct
which most have
towards the helpless, the disadvantaged, and the
dependent. George
has encountered and embraced a responsibility,
a social
responsibility, and a humanitarian responsibility. It is to
take care of,
protect, save from hurt, the dim-witted, loyal, and
devoted Lennie.
George constantly repeats how Lennie is a
burden to him, but as
George speaks,
and his character becomes plain, you know that life
would be totally
meaningless and empty, for him without Lennie to
take care of.
Also he has his emotional compensation in Lennie's
pathetic and
dog-like devotion to him.
Lennie is George's doom, which he accepts in
part because he
knows that Lennie
cannot live without him and in part because of
love- even
Lennie's poor defective love is precious to him. Year
after year they
go on cherishing the dream of someday settling down
on a little farm
together, where Lennie will tend the rabbits, and life
for them will
have reached their peak.
Lennie kills without hate. Lennie's actions
are responsive only. He
only reacts when
something triggers him to. He never instigates his
actions. The pup
bit him, therefor he hit the dog. Curley beat on
him, therefor
Lennie crushed the bones of his hand. People die
simply because of
his strength. Lennie had a condition that the
others could
never understand. This is why Lennie had to die
himself, simply
because within the society of man, he is abnormal
and weak, and
would never stand a chance.
At the climax of the novel, Lennie's
accidental killing of the
women shatters
the dream shared by George Candy, and for a short
while, Crooks and
died with Lennie. Rather than see Lennie
tragically
abused, and rather than let someone else kill him, (as
Candy let another
kill his dog and afterward regretted having done
so himself.)
George must perform the deed himself. He alone has
the right, for he
and Lennie have become one, made so by love and
a shared dream.
They are responsible for eathother. The implication
here is that man
without hope and love, without a dream, is perhaps
better off dead.
The concluding pages to the novel find themselves
in the same
setting as the beginning, where they recite for the final
time, their
impossible dream which finished when the trigger was
pulled. What was
done had to be done, and the story concludes
when both God and
man symbolically forgive the murder when the
Godly words of
Slim declare "You hadda George, I swear you
hadda."
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