Of mice and men †George’s character Essay

George possesses many fine, admirable qualities in the novel, however there is one action he ultimately commits which is evil. Of George’s good qualities, his self respect and respect for others are his most outstanding. He displays all of these qualities many times throughout the book, and never are these qualities contradicted, except in one evil act that George commits. George is a character who has great respect for himself. Often, we stereotype homeless, drifter types such as George as people who have no concern for personal hygiene, appearance, or even something as simple as a clean place to sleep. George, however, is a living example that disproves this stereotype. When George and Lenny first arrive on the ranch, George is assigned a bed in the bunkhouse. When George proceeds to put his belongings on a shelf next to his bed, he finds a bottle that reads, â€Å"positively kills lice, roaches, and other scourges,†(20). After George finds this, he responds, â€Å"What the hell kind of bed you giving us, anyways. We don’t want no pants rabbits,†(20). This shows that George does care if he has a clean bed to sleep in; we sometimes think a person like George wouldn’t care about this. Throughout the novel, George shows his respect for others many times. The character that George respects the most is Slim. George never challenged Slim’s opinion, and recognized that Slim’s word was law. Not only George respects Slim, though. It seems everyone on the ranch recognizes Slim as the supreme law. After Slim tells Candy that he thinks the dog should be shot, â€Å"Candy looked helplessly at him [Slim], for Slim’s opinions were law.† George also has a great respect for Crooks, the Negro stable buck. When George finds Lenny and Candy in Crooks’ room, he realizes that Crooks likes the company, however he knows that, for the good of Crooks, that Candy and Lenny must leave the room. George makes them leave the room because he respects Crooks and is trying to do what’s best for him. In the conclusion of the novel, George commits one evil, horrendous deed. This deed is killing Lennie. George doesn’t just mercifully kill Lennie, though. George executes him, shooting him in the back of the head with a pistol. Lennie must have felt pain, even if it was just for a second. George could have easily fled with Lennie and poisoned him or, better yet, not killed Lennie at all. The grounds on which George killed Lennie are not justifiable. They could have made another attempt at making a stake to buy that piece of property, however George threw this chance away. George also commits a crime on himself, because after Lennie is killed, it can be deduced that George will go on to lead an immoral, evil lifestyle, that of the average bucker on the ranch. In this novel, Steinbeck seems to view all human dreams as unachievable. He illustrates many characters with distinct dreams in this novel, such as Lennie and George, Candy, and Curley’s wife. Each one of these characters has different dreams, but each dream is incredibly important to them. All of these dreams, though, seem like they will never be achieved by the people who dream them. Lennie and George’s dream is perhaps the most important dream; the story is somewhat focused around it. This dream begins with building up a stake, which is a sum of money accumulated over a time. Once a stake of around 600 dollars is accumulated, George and Lenny plan to buy a small piece of land, about 10 acres, and move into the house on it. † ‘†¦Someday-we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and-† â€Å"An’ live off the fatta the lan,’ Lennie shouted,†(15). George is the one who initially came up with this dream. Initially, George just told Lennie of this dream to amuse him. George, though, never thought this would ever happen. With the inclusion of Candy in the plan, though, George begins to believe this dream. He still has a feeling that he won’t achieve it. From what the novel says, we can conclude that Lennie and George will never achieve this dream, because Lennie is dead. We can also deduce that George will never settle down and buy some land on his own. Candy has a dream similar to George and Lennie’s, however he wants a different feeling out of the dream. What Candy is looking for is a sense of security. This is important to someone like Candy, who, having a relatively unstable job, could be fired at any time. Also, Candy is disabled, so he would have a hard time finding another job, especially in a time like the Great Depression. Candy wants to live with Lennie and George so that he can have a secure future, and not have to worry about not having a place to live. When George seems to abandon the dream when he knows Lennie must die, Candy is worried that George won’t want to complete the dream without Lennie. â€Å"You an’ me can get that little place, can’t we, George? You an’ me can go there an’ live nice, can’t we, George? Can’t we?†(103). It can be deduced from this passage that Candy is having doubts about the dream now, and is worried it will never be achieved. It seems that Curley’s wife has the simplest dream of all in the novel. All that she craves is attention. She is so desperate for attention that she will take it from anyone, even Lennie or Crooks, the Negro stable buck. It can be deduced that the reason she married Curley was for the sole purpose of attention, because it is clear that she doesn’t have much attraction to him, and he has only a limited amount of attraction to her; he treats her more like a prostitute than a wife. When Curly’s wife gets lonely, she seeks out anyone for attention, even stooping to the level of getting attention from the stable buck, when he is in his room with Candy and Lennie. She also looks to Lennie for attention when she finds him alone in the barn. This was not an intelligent idea and it resulted in her death. Curly’s wife died without ever receiving ample attention from anyone, thus her dream was not achieved. George and Curly are both very similar people. They are both rather small, and both of them could defend themselves if they needed to. They both work on the ranch, and they both, in there own mind, have a lot of power. There are however, many differences between Curly and George. Among these is their personality, self respect, and respect for others. George has a very mellow, calm attitude about things, and never gets out of control. He’s a very controlled person, and would never let his temper get the better of him. Curly, on the other hand, is always looking to pick a fight. Whenever he gets the opportunity, he will challenge someone to a fight. This is partially due to the fact that he’s an avid boxer, and it’s also due to his mentality. He has the classic â€Å"little guy† mentality, always wanting to be able to beat up people, to make up for his size. George has much respect for himself. He shows this in the beginning of the novel, when he finds the lice killer next to the bed. He knows that he deserves a clean bed, because he has much respect for himself. Curly, though, has no respect for himself. He’s always trying to be better than other people, trying to show up people. He has to build himself up to make up for his lack of confidence and respect for himself. George has much respect for others. He respects Slim greatly, and takes Slim’s word as law. He also respects Crooks, by realizing that it’s best for Lennie to stay out of his room. George doesn’t look for fights because he has respect for people, and isn’t willing to stoop to the level of Curly. By punching Lennie just for supposedly laughing at him, Curly shows that he has no respect for Lennie. If he did, he would not have had any reason to fight him. Curly fought Lenny on grounds of respect; he wanted to gain respect from others if he won the fight.