Of Mice and Men- Symbiotic Relationship

Lennie is probably the central character in the book, ‘Of Mice And Men’. At the beginning of the book he is referred to as being like an animal because of his ‘shapeless face’ and his ‘wide sloping shoulders’. Steinbeck first describes Lennie like a bear dragging his large paws. He also drinks from the pool in the brush like a horse, ‘snorting into the water like a horse’.
From the beginning of the book we can see that Lennie is an interesting character due to his mental disability. He is a huge, powerful character but he is also very innocent. He seems to have grown up physically but not mentally. In the book George says Lennie is ‘just like a kid’. This is very true because he takes orders from George, he asks George a lot of questions and he is very stupid. George, his best and only friend, even says, “Sure. He’s as dumb as hell.”
Throughout the book we can see that he is a gentle, kind character and his passion for soft things such as mice, puppies, pretty woman and especially rabbits shows this. His aunt Clara used to give him mice when he was young but he used to kill them sometimes without meaning to. This is because he is so strong. It is like he is a violent person without knowing it. Even though George and his aunt Clara tells him not to pet them to hard he still kills them. He doesn’t want to disobey he is just too strong. In Weed Lennie’s passion for soft things is very unfortunate for both George and Lennie. The incident in Weed was because Lennie does not understand the sexual side of him. He does not understand that it is wrong to stroke or to stare at woman like he does to Curly’s wife and h doesn’t know why it is wrong either. The two men share a vision of a farm that they will own together, a vision that Lennie believes in wholeheartedly and they say the will ‘live off the fatta the land’.

Lennie and George are two very different characters and this is why they need each other. Lennie depends on George and he couldn’t survive without him.