Of Mice and Men

Friendship and Companionship: Of Mice and Men essay

Of Mice and Men by author John Steinbeck is a Novel of many themes but a reoccurring theme is friendship and companionship. There are three very good demonstrations of this theme in this story. Those examples are George and Lennie’s friendship, Candy and his dog’s companionship, and Slim and the workers he has to supervise and work with. Each of these presentations of friendships and companionships are unique in their very own ways.

Candy and his deep love for his very old and frail dog is not just a companionship but a true friendship, between man and dog. Candy has had his dog ever since he just a very little puppy. In the story, Carlson suggests that Candy put his dog down and Carlson evens offers to put it down for him. Candy’s reasons for not wanting to put down his old companion is that he cares for him to much and the dog has helped out working in the fields with Candy and he has helped him herd sheep when he as younger also. After a good long while of Carlson trying to convince candy to let his dog go and put him down, Candy finally lets his old friend go. It is a very tough decision for Candy but he realizes it is for the better good of his beloved dog.

Another great showcase of friendship and companionship would be Slims tight knit relationship with his group of workers. Slim is a supervisor and also a worker who keeps his guys in check but treats his men with the utmost respect and equality he feels they deserve. Since he gives his workers that respect, in return they treat him with admiration and appreciation for the way slim respects them. For example Curley is another supervisor that keeps tabs on the men who work for him but Curley treats them poorly and negatively. In return his men do not pay him the dignity he should be getting because of his position he holds above them. I personally admire the way Slim handles himself and others around him and for that he is my favorite character in Of Mice and Men.

Out of all the cases of friendship and companionship in this story, by far the most important is George and Lennie’s relationship. They have by far the most unique relationship out other friendship or companion ship in the whole novel. Lennie is mentally handicapped and George is a close friend who looks after and pretty much takes care of him. George is always having to in a way, sacrifice for Lennie’s good being and I greatly respect George for what he does. He is a great man with a good head on his shoulders and so is Lennnie, even though Lennie is always getting them two into trouble.

In conclusion of this essay, there are many examples of friendship and companionship but the three that I have used in this story are what I feel are the best demonstrations of this theme. I choose this theme to write about in my essay because I felt it was the easiest one for me personally to elaborate on when writing about it. Also I choose this topic because it was the only one I really liked out of the choices we had to write about.