Mice&Men

`Of Mice&Men

In the story of Mice&Men all sorts of emerge every new chapter. In the beginning the main characters Lennie and George travel on the road to their new jobs. After running away from their previous workplace; Weed. George is a little man with a big heart; he treats Lennie as if he's a useless fool who he can live without, but deep inside he really needs Lennie. Lennie is a huge guy with a heart that can be as kind and bad-ass as Mufassa (Lion King), but he's mentally retarded. Since George&Lennie have big dreams of living big. The main conflict of the story is Lennie&George (as i see as one character) versus Fate, and this main conflict leads to all the other conflicts that strangles the two of them in the story.

Lennie, one of the perfect two.Mental retardation and his string of fate is strung with problems. During George’s and Lennie’s travel to their new workplace, George explains their bright future for the first time in the book. In the quote:

“Lennie was delighted. “That’s it-that’s it. Now tell how it is with us.

George went on. “With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. we got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jacks jus’ because we got no place else to go.”(14)

The two of them have each other’s backs. so the two of them should be considered the same character, because they could not live with out each other; they cover up each other’s flaws.. They both need each other, and them being together is what really makes the story interesting to read. In the quote George says that they are special; unlike all the other travelers on the road, they will be the lucky ones who make it big in the world and live a happy life with a alfalfa patch for the bunnies that will live with them till death. I think that because they because they think know they are different, they are challenging their fate, and this leads to other conflicts with other characters in the story

After Lennie and George settle into their new workplace they met the song of the boss, Curley. Curley, is the troublemaker of the story: he hates guys that are bigger than him. When Curley’s eye catches Lennie, he scowls and examines him with hate. Like it does in the quote:  

“Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he’s mind at ‘em because he ain’t a big guy.” (26)

Dealing with Curley is another conflict that George&Lennie run into in their strive for a living.      Curley is the type of character who causes the most trouble for the main character; he clearly shows his hatred toward Lennie just for being a big guy. In the quote it portrays the idea insanely Curley can get just because of his ‘feelings,’ but even if Curley is a big jerk George&Lennie deal with him and for them to do that they are challenging fate.

Toward the end of the story, Lennie meets his bucket. After Lennie’s little accident with Curley’s wife, George makes a hard decision to kill Lennie, because if he didn’t and Curley found out, well everything would have been over. In shows that their fate in the world is not what they think in the quote:

“And George raised the fun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie;s head. The hand shook violently , but his face set out and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. The crash of shot rolled up the hills and rowed down again.. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering.” (106)

While George tries to kill Lennie, he feels boundless hesitation to drop the gun and not do it and he shows this by shaking. When George comes to his senses, I think that he realises this is the best option: their is no other way that would work out. And by doing this he is accepting and in a way challenges the fate of what was brought upon Lennie. George accepts their fate by killing Lennie, but he also challenges it by refusing to do it until Lennie speaks his last few honoring words.So till the end, George their fate hoping that a pleasant life will awake for them but it’s all over when Lennie dies.
Since the story contains more than one character, it’s safe to say that there is more than one conflict because a story is not interesting without a conflict. With all these conflicts it’s important to find the main conflict of the story so we can understand the purpose/meaning of the story. The main conflict of this story is Lennie&George as one character because they face the same conflict versus fate. Other conflicts emerge from this main conflict in the sense that, since they are driven by finding their fate they meet a lot of new people and new conflicts emerge because of that. The three quotes from pages, show why that is so. Through their main conflict, the purpose of telling us that life was hard back then, and there was hardships during that period of time (Great Depression) is clearly shown.