Of Mice And Men: Life In The Great Depression

Rocky Huang
Mr. Druery
ENG4U
Monday, December 5th
<<Of mice and men>>---Life in the depression
The Great Depression Was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. In the United States, the economic crisis beginning with the stock market crash in 1929 and continuing through the 1930s, a period during the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression and mass unemployment. <<Of mice and men>> takes place in Great Depression of the United States. Everybody needs to rely on something to live, either on spirit and body, like Lennie and George. When you lose the person you relied on, if the person gives you material support, you will lose the ability to survive; if the person gives you confidence, love, and hope that makes you have the courage to walk through the difficult life, but he has been taken away so easily, you will be fallen to the marsh of despair and loneliness, and never get a day to see light again. People are not trust other people. Both Lennie and George are one of them.
Lennie was like child.
He likes to touch soft things around him but always brings harassment to them, he was so easy to get afraid and bathed his face in tears. He was just a child, but god gave him the strength that he cannot control, gave him duty that a child cannot handled. Everything around Lennie was so difficult, he cannot understood why he and George need to go around the whole country to find a job, he cannot understood why George was always get mad on him but never say that he going to leave him. Lennie cannot be independent, so he chose to rely on George, or actually, he must rely on George to survive in the dark age they live, the age of high-unemployment and
starvation.
Maybe he mentioned that he was relying on George too much and really felt sorry about it, maybe he just sat there and receive all of the help that George gave him and felt nothing. He doesn’t really understand what the thing he should do is and what’s not. But George does not care, he just spend his love, money, and time on Lennie selfless, because he knows, that they cannot live without each other.
Many people think that Lennie relies on George too much, that’s the reason lead him to death. Its right, but I think that actually, George will have a more painful life without Lennie than Lennie’s life without George. The relationship between them is like a mouse and a man, mouse cannot get food without the man, and man will feed the mouse and get happiness from it. Mouse without the man will died on the street, the man without the mouse owns nothing except loneliness.
Lennie and George are not just relying on each other, they also rely on a dream they have. “Someday----we’re going to get the jack together and we’re going to have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and---”. “An’ live off the fatta the lan, an’ have rabbits”. It is just simple dream about life, a better life that can let them get reed of the instability and vagrancy life.
The dream Lennie and George had that has a premise. “Because I got you to look after me, and me to get look after you, and that’s why.” They relied on each other, and lived in this model for a long time. Back to the day that aunt asked Clara George to take care of Lennie in the life after, what’s the feeling of George? They were just normal friends, they live in a easy life, but now he has to face a huge trouble. It becomes George’s responsibility, it’s too heavy for him, but it was the destiny that he must accept. Lennie doesn’t make George fell will at first, he likes to touch everything that was soft around him, it caused a lot of mice’s dead body, but through the time, George found out, that in his heart, it is quiet warm to take care of someone.
The friendship between Lennie and George becomes more indestructible in front of the trouble, only death can separate them, they are the closest people in the world in their mind. We all know that George was a lonely kid, too. Maybe in his mind, although he doesn’t admit, he also relied on Lennie too, because it’s the only friend it left now. A long time of relying will becomes a precious love. I rely on my parents, because I need people to nurture me when I cannot earn my life myself, we stay together for a long time, because we formed love, the love between family members. I rely on my friends, because I need more people to play with me, to talk with me, to help me when I cannot solve problems by myself, of course I will do the same thing to them. We helped each other, sharing the ideas, it becomes friendship.
Many people said that relying on other people means that you have lose your freedom, in my opinion it’s Lennie of right. When the people you rely on betrayed you, what will you feel? Very hurt right? When you want to help your friends, but you found out that you don’t have the ability to do that, you cannot carry out your responsibility, what will you feel? Relying on other people will bring a lot of hurt, like Lennie. “You never give a thought to George, he been doing nice things for you alla time. When he got a piece of pie, you always get half or more in half. An’ if there was any ketchup, why he’d give it all to you.” It is the word that Aunt Clara in Lennie’s imagination told to him. Lennie always receive too much from George, he knows that, but he has nothing to do with, because he always makes things getting worse. He can only cried to his imagination, tried to lie to himself that he tried to help George but not just relied on him. Lennie will die. When the first time read this book, I have mentioned that. Without George, he may died by starvation. He always gets into trouble, more and more, bigger and bigger. Every time, George saved him. In Lennie’s mind, George is like God. He can save my life, he can talk with me, he promised to buy a rabbit for me, it is the thought in Lennie’s mind. That’s the reason that Lennie said: “I never forget the things you told me, George.”
At last, George used gun, shot Lennie’s head and end his life. In my mind, Lennie was died in happiness; he died in a soft dream, not danger or fear. If Curley doesn’t trust George and came up himself to shot Lennie, it will be different. But I cannot imagine the life that George has after that. He shot his best friend, although for a good reason. The feeling of guiltiness will beside George for his whole life time. George needs Lennie, but things never going back.
<<Of mice and man>> told us a tragedy of life, a tragedy of relying. That time causes the miserable of Lennie. The friendship between them is the most precious things in the world, but it disappeared so easily and so fast. Relying on others is normal, but when you rely on others in a wrong time period, things will get wrong, and tragedy forms. It is a crazy story and happened in the wrong time.