Of Mice and Men response essay

 Of Mice and Men response Devin Liu

        In John Steinbeck's realistic fiction novella Of Mice and Men, Lennie is the guy that starts all the conflicts. The central conflict is the battle between Lennie and George. Lennie and George travel the country in search of a job, but the former keeps messing up. The sub-conflict adds to the problem. Lennie's insanity agitates everyone and drags George down and it causes Lennie to do something that George will not forget. In the end, both conflicts add up and lead to Lennie's doom, which solves the conflict.

        In the Great Depression, the unemployment rate was 25% in the U.S., which is where the story takes place. If there is a high unemployment rate, then many people will compete for jobs, thus it will be hard to get jobs. George successfully gets work several times, but Lennie interrupts this by losing George his jobs as it says in this quote:

I got you! You can't keep a job and you lose ever' job I get. (11)

Lennie is interfering with George's ability to survive, which means getting a job. Lennie's mouth gets people angry and his actions scare people causing people to see him as a retarded monster. Of course, George is also seen as an outcast because of the company he keeps. Losing his jobs forces George to become a nomad and roam the country for a job. Moving about causes serious challenges such as finding food and shelter. They also have to deal with cold and heat. In a way, Lennie is endangering George and himself.

        Lennie also has a habit of holding onto things when frightened. This gives George stress even though it's only a habit. This quote says it all:

Well he seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like he is, he wants

to touch ever'thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to

feel this red dress an' the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie

all mixed up, and he hold on 'cause that' the only thing he can think

to do. (41)

George is forced to pry Lennie off the girl and she tells the police. The police and the men search for the two main characters. They threaten to lynch them and the two are forced to hide in a ditch. At the time of the incident, George was looking for a job and of course Lennie loses it again. They are on the move for the search for a job. Lennie has really big hands and when he clutches onto something, it will break. There are many examples. Lennie tries to pet a mouse, but is bites him. He gets angry and crushes the mouse. Curly beats him up and Lennie crushes Curly's hand when he gets frightened. Later on in the story, he tries to pet a rabbit and didn’t know he could crush it like the mouse earlier in the story. The big one was when he hung onto Curly’s wife and snapped her neck. George is forced to cover up for Lennie until Curly points out that Lennie did it.

        Lennie’s insanity endangers him as well. This sub-conflict leads to the main conflict and George demonstrates how stupid Lennie is in this quote:

I turns to Lennie and says,'Jump in.'And he jumps. Couldn't swim

a stroke. (40)

George tells Lennie to jump into a river. Lennie has to be saved by George. Remember that incident where Lennie grabs onto a woman’s dress. That costed George’s job and if they worked at Weed, Lennie would not have met Curly’s wife and killed her. Another way to think of it is if Lennie wasn’t insane and could live on his own, then he wouldn’t have to follow George. This story would have never taken place if he stayed where he came from. He could live safe and sound and own his farm of rabbits and mice.

        Of course the above scenario didn’t happen and the men look for Lennie after they find Curly’s wife’s dead body. Lennie is later seen hiding in the brush and George tricks him into lowering his guard. He grabs a pistol and shoots him at the back of the head. This death can be seen as positive and negative. The death relieves some of the stress George will have to face. Curly will find peace and have his revenge for his wife’s death. The negative aspect is of course that Lennie dies. This ending couldn’t have happened without Lennie’s craziness and his conflict with George.