George and Lennie’s friendship Our first impressions of the relationship between Lennie and George come in the opening chapter when they enter, ‘ they had walked in single file down the path, and even in the open one stayed behind the other’, this shows that one of the characters is more of the leader and the other is a follower. Our second impression is after they drink from the pool, when they are sitting on the hill and Lennie is imitating George’s actions “he pulled his hat down a little more over his eyes the way George’s hat was. This quote gives us an immediate interpretation of Lennie and it shows us that Lennie looks up to George as a role model, the quote “way George’s hat was” suggests he acts just like him and copies his actions.
“Lennie looked timidly over to him. “George? ” “Yeah, what ya want? ” “Where we goin’ George? ”… “So you forgot that already did you? ”” this implies that without George, Lennie would be hopeless and would get no where because he would always be lost.It shows us that Lennie really depends on George. When Lennie says “where we goin’” he sounds slightly worried, this will be because he knows that George will get angry at him because he is constantly having to remind him of where they are going and why, which is there dream of owning their on house with animals. The word “already” suggests that Lennie is always forgetting things and George is getting more and more fed up and that george told Lennie not too long ago and Lennie has already forgotten.
The word “timidly” implies that George often gets angry with Lennie and now Lennie has learnt to approach him differently when he is angry so he wont be as upset. This implies their friendship is strong, as they know how to approach each other. Steinbeck uses animal imagery to illustrate his characters and the friendship between them “Lennie, for god’s sake don’t drink so much”. This is implying that Lenny is like a bear and that he’ll drink until he is physically sick.Also he uses the quote “ drank with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse ”This suggests that George has to care for Lennie so he doesn’t get ill; this means that again, we see Lennie relying on George to care for him, it is shown in the book when George sais “ Lennie, for god’ sakes don’t drink so much’ During the course of the novel, the characters speak very informally, for example “Jes’ a little stretch” this suggests they have more important things to worry about than to speak properly, things such as surviving.This shows us that the way of life then is different; nowadays the majority of people speak proper English, as they are properly educated.
The author intends for us to see how difficult life was during the great depression (1930s) and too show us what they went through and the feelings and experiences they faced I think that they have a very strong friendship, a friendship that brothers should have as they look out for each other and care. I admire their friendship because it is very strong and it doesn’t break easily. I also think that their friendship is very important for Lennie’s survival because George takes care of him.
