John Steinbeck Friendship

In “Of Mice and Men,” two migrant workers have a dream to live in a house and own their own land together, but when one kills a woman, things start to go downhill. In the novella “Of Mice and Men”, John Steinbeck uses characterization and symbolism to emphasize that friendship can prevent people from achieving the American Dream.

Steinbeck uses characterization to explore the idea that friendship can cause a person’s American Dream to be unachievable. Steinbeck first explains that the main characters’, George and Lennie’s, friendship is special, when Lennie says to George, “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you”(14) showing that they aren’t like the other men in the 1930’s that traveled alone. Then, Steinbeck
Candy and his dog’s friendship was much like George and Lennie’s. Candy explains that he “had him so long. Had him since he was a pup”(Steinbeck 44) which is like George who was friends with Lennie since they were young kids. Their friendship influences their dream to live together. Carlson explains that the dog is “no good to [Candy] and no good to himself”(Steinbeck 44), emphasizing the similarity with Lennie who is of no use to George and makes his life difficult, showing that even though Lennie causes trouble for George, he still wants to live his dream with him. Furthermore, Candy admits to George, after Carlson killed his old dog, that he “oughtta of shot that dog myself” and that he “shouldn’t oughtta of let no stranger shoot [his] dog”(Steinbeck 61). This later influences George’s decision to kill Lennie himself after Lennie got himself into trouble by killing Curley’s wife. He retells the story of their dream to Lennie before shooting Lennie because he didn’t want to feel regret if Curley shot Lennie instead, like Candy. This causes them to not be able to achieve their dream as it included both George and