Lenie And Lennie's Relationship Essay

“The Counterfeiters” When dealing with a story like “The Counterfeiters” it is often hard to have a complete understanding of the story because there is always so much going on. There is the always present relationship between Olivier and Bernard, the adulterous ordeal between Vincent and Laura, the novel “The Counterfeiters” which Edouard is writing, and many, many other side plots that revolve around each other and tie the mass web of main characters all together. However, I found that the most intriguing and interesting relationship in “The Counterfeiters” was the relationship between two schoolboy friends, Olivier and Bernard, presented by André Gide; and in my opinion, the subplots of the novel are all anchored by the connection and
friendship between the two young boys. Throughout the novel, the reader can see the growth and transformation of Olivier’s and Bernard’s friendshipuntil they ultimately have a summer away with older men that eventually pull them apart. Although André Gide paints us a very unique picture based off an even more unique writing style where I would have trouble relating another novel to “The Counterfeiters” as a whole, the relationship between Olivier and Bernard is reminiscent to me of the relationship between George Milton and Lennie Small, in John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”. Both pairs of characters seem to take pretty similar paths in the development of their relationships and the extent, to which they depend upon one another, resulting in similar endings where they are cut off from each other. John Steinbeck wrote “Of Mice and Men” in 1937 and the novel is about two migrant field workers from California trying to make a living during the Great Depression. Lennie Small and George Milton are the two main characters like Olivier and Bernard, but unlike “The Counterfeiters”, “Of Mice and Men” is made up of a much less complex set of characters. George Milton is the brains of the operation; however, he tends to be very cynical and overall pessimistic throughout the novel. Lennie Small is George’s right hand man and is himself a big, strong, bruiting man who at times, lacks some average insight and common sense. For these obvious reasons, the two men have a relationship where Lennie and George seem to depend on one another in order to accomplish anything. The two men are not highly polished and lack any true literacy skills, but the combination of George’s wit and Lennie’s strength on a farm more than make up for their lack of education. George and Lennie travel the land stopping to find work on whatever farms they can in order to save up some money, or a “stake”, and eventually attain a peaceful and happy future. We do eventually learn that Lennieis severely flawed as he tends to not realize his own strength and is so obsessed with the feel of soft things, that he sometimes kills or strangles whatever he is fascinated by petting. George and Lennie are only really after their own interpretation and realization of the American dream, and their aspirations were to be able to soon buy their own place; avery simple yet euphoric dream for the big man. The two farm hands’ smooth ride to achieving their goal is critically derailed in the climax. Eventually Lennie becomes too far distracted by the beauty and soft hair of a worker’s wife and one day when she tricks him into being alone with her, he accidently strangles the woman while petting her hair. George is again left to deal with Lennie and sends him off running to a place the two know well where Lennie’s panic will be at ease. Before a mob of ranch hands can catch Lennie and kill him, George shoots Lennie in the back of the head while heis happy and never sees it coming. George and Lennie’s relationship parallels that of Olivier and Bernard in several ways such as it seems at first that the two depend on one another to be happy. Eventually, the reader can see which one of the friends in both situations asserts himself as the more mature and intellectually intriguing one and which side seems to give off an immature attitude. At first, Bernard seeks comfort and safety with Olivier because Bernard feels lost in the wake of discovering he was a bastard child. Olivier and Bernard’s friendship is very passionate at this point and they have a connection unlike the other school boys. After Bernard leaves with Edouard is when the dynamics of Olivier and Bernard’s friendship start to change. Olivier seems much too jealous of Bernard’s relationship with his uncle when he receives Bernard’s letter so he goes off with Passavant to become his secretary without really knowing what he wanted. This is where I can relate Olivier and Bernard’s friendship with the relationship of George and Lennie in Steinbeck’s novel. George and Bernard both seem to be the mature one out of the duos and both are the closest to being able to live independently and free from their counterparts. Lennie and Olivier both appear indecisive to me as if they never truly know what they desire.
Lennie is constantly holding on to the idea of having his own rabbits to tend to in order to make himself happy and Olivier takes the summer off with Passavant without really being prepared to do so, simply because of the jealousy he feels when Bernard is with Edouard and he receives his first letter in the mail. As both stories progress, I felt as though George and Bernard’s characters were breaking away on their own more and Olivier and Lennie’s characters seem to just fail. After a summer away with Edouard, Bernard did not have the same feelings for Olivier as he said, “He did not therefore find much difficulty in persuading himself that he had had enough of Olivier; that during these two summer months he had exhausted the charm of an adventure which ran the risk of encumbering his life.” (p. 324 The Counterfeiters) Bernard knew it was time to move on from his affection towards Olivier and be his own person. In “Of Mice and Men”, George needs to make a similar decision when there is an angry mob threatening the life of Lennie. By shooting Lennie in the back of the head, George is giving up on his joint dream with Lennie and putting the child-like ogre out of his misery. Lennie and Olivier both took similar spins as Olivier almost tried to kill himself and acted very immature at the Argonauts’
Dinner. And it was here in the story where Bernard had seen that boyish charm that was always so vibrant in Olivier, disappearedleaving Bernard distant and detached. I feel as though Gide used Olivier and Bernard’s innocent yet passionate and deeply rooted schoolboy friendship to propel the dynamics of the entire novel, so I definitely felt as though they were the foundation of the book. “Of Mice and Men” was more centralized on their two main characters but I feel as though Steinbeck and Gide both used similar literary devices to carve out two very similar roller coaster rides of a relationship.