The Characters

In Of Mice and Men there are two main characters, Lennie and George. They have been together for a long time, probably since they were kids. And even though they are not related, there bound seems to be thicker then blood.

George is the person that´s followed the most. He is described as “[…] small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features”(Of Mice and Men,1937 , Steinbeck, John, p.3). He seems to be a nice guy at heart, but he tends to hid it. It´s like he doesn’t really trust anybody. It could be that he doesn’t want to get to personally involved with anybody the meet on the roads, since he believes Lennie´s going to do something stupid, that force them to move on. Maybe George should have left Lennie a long time ago, but he just can´t leave him. George is the only one left Lennie´s in life, and George thinks he would regret it later.

Lennie is like a little brother to George. Lennie is the opposite of George: “[…]a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders” (Of Mice and Men, 1937, Steinbeck, John, p.3). He doesn’t seem to be the brightest guy either, but he is strong. He was left with George when “Aunt Clara” died, but if she was Lennie´s or George´s aunt is hard to understand.

Lennie seems to have a certain obsession to mice. He like to pet them, and early in the book his caught by George with having a dead mouse in his pocket. “I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along” (Of Mice and Men, 1937, Steinbeck, John, p.6) he explained to George. He also tends to compare everything with Mice, which is a strange habit.

It was his obsession to mice that forced them to leave the last town. He tried to pet a girls dress, but the girl believed he tried to rape her. That is why they had to run. Lennie seems to do similar things a lot, forcing the two men to run. But as long as they stick together, they´ll make it through.