The main characters of Of Mice and Men,
George and Lennie, about whom Steinbeck himself wrote, "Lennie was not to
represent insanity at all but the inarticulate and powerful yearning of all men,"
represent the dispossessed of the Great Depression. As these alienated men who became
itinerant workers, George and Lennie are dropped off miles from the ranch where they are
going to work. Their solitude and alienation is symbolized by the location, the
vicinity of Soledad in the Salinas Valley. This is the first conflict. Pondering
the impersonal and gratuitously cruel treatment to which they have been subjected
earlier, George reflects angrily,
"We could just as well of rode clear to the
ranch if that bastard bus driver knew what he was talkin' about. 'Jes' a little stretch
down the highway,' he says....damn near four miles, tha't what it was! Didn't wanta
stop at the ranch gate, tha't what....Kicks us out and say, 'Jes a little stretch down
the road.' I bet it was more than four miles. Damn hot
day."
From the beginning, the
contrast between George and Lennie is apparent. With the surnames of Milton and Small,
their intelligences are suggested. Lennie follows George, moving like a bear,
submerging his head into the water of the stream and dabbling in it with "paws." These
actions of Lennie create the main conflict between the men, one of intelligence. For,
George scolds Lennie, "You gonna be sick like you was last night....You'd drink out of a
gutter if you was thirsty."
When Lennie again asks where
they are going, George becomes irritated since Lennie has been told several times
already. Then, George becomes upset by having seen Lennie take a mouse from his pocket;
scolding, he tells Lennie, "Give it here!" These two incidences
describe the major conflicts involving George and Lennie: mentally deficient, the
child-like Lennie has difficulty remembering things, and he disobeys George and finds
himself in trouble as he was in Weed when he frightened a girl and caused George and his
hurried departure.
Reflecting on the trouble that Lennie
has caused him, George says,
"I could get along so easy and so nice if I
didn't have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a
girl."
Yet, if he were alone,
George would lose his external conflicts with Lenne, but, then, he would suffer from an
internal conflict, that of aloneness. Similarly, Lennie suffers from this conflict with
George as he feels rejection. In his love for George, he suggests that he could go away
and live in a cave; but, of course, he cannot sustain himself, and George realizes that
his conflicts with Lennie will never be resolved by leaving. He must look out for
Lennie as the man needs him.
This dilemma of the desire to
protect oneself from others while facing solitude is the major conflict of the
characters of Steinbeck's novella. Deprived of family and friends, the men must be
protectively distrustful of each other, yet they also need companionship as they become
cruel and aggressive in their alienation. It is a metaphoric chapter that John Steibeck
creates in his first chapter Of Mice and Men, one that represents
the need for a brotherhood of men to stave off the solidary deprivations of
soul experienced by the itinerant workers of the 1930s.
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