Lennie v.s. himself; Of Mice and Men

Character v.s. Self

In the novel Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, the main character is Lennie. Lennie is very strong and loyal to his best friend George, as well as kind to other people he meets. Despite these friendly traits that he has, George is always frustrated with Lennie because he always make them lose their jobs and then they have to run and hide. George then starts to talk about how life could be so much easier for him if it weren’t for Lennie. Lennie is then ashamed and angry at himself for making George feel that way, and would even leave him to ensure George’s happiness and dreams. Lennie has high hopes of being able to tend to rabbits, but this means that he has to listen to George and stay away from any kind of trouble, especially Curley and his wife. George knows that if Lennie gets too involved with anyone, then soon Lennie will hurt them, just as he did with all the mice. Not getting involved proves very hard to do because both of these characters attempt to make Lennie take their bait. Curley tries to start a fight with Lennie to prove that he is still the ‘alpha lion’, but he learns far too late that he is no match for Lennie. The same destiny awaits his wife. She tries to cheat on Curley with various people, like Slim. When she finds out that Lennie is stronger than Curley, she wants to cheat on Curley and be with him instead. Lennie however, having always taken orders from George and never making decisions on his own, is at loss for what to do, and kills Curley’s wife.

    The first piece of evidence that proves the central conflict is Lennie v.s. self is when Lennie kills his puppy. “Now I won’t get to tend the rabbits. Now he won’t let me.” Lennie knows that George will be less sure that Lennie should tend if he will only kill them, even if Lennie only kills them by accident. Lennie is angry at the dog for being so easy to die, and then is angry at himself for always doing bad things and causing trouble.
    The next quote we see is after Lennie kills Curley’s wife and is angry at himself again. “I shouldn’t of did that. I’ve done a real bad thing.” After Lennie realizes he killed Curley’s wife, he is sure that George will want him to go away. So Lennie waits by the bush as George instructed him, but he later realizes that he should leave George so he can be happy and not be burdened with Lennie. To make matters worse, he gets hallucinations of a rabbit and Lennie’s Aunt Clara that both tell him that he should leave George if he cares about him at all and is crazy if he thinks George will come looking for him or expects him to take him back. He then struggles with himself, no longer needing hallucinations, for the seeds of doubt have been planted and grow rapidly within George’s mind, and is torn between what he wants and what he wants for George.
    A quote that explains this conflict is when Lennie begins to hallucinate, and what he feared in his mind came as false images and told him terrible things:”He gonna leave you all alone.””He ain’t I tell ya he ain’t. Oh! George--George--George!” When Lennie hallucinates, he sees his Aunt Clara and a rabbit. Both of them tell him that George would be better off without Lennie, and all Lennie ever did to him was burden him, even though George was always looking out for him and taking care of him. Lennie tries not to believe this, but the hallucinations keep growing stronger and louder. Then Lennie is so overwhelmed by them that soon he is shouting and pleading for George to come and forgive him.
    Even when George does come, Lennie can’t help but wonder whether George will leave him or be better off without him. He remembers all the times when George would say that he could be rich, or successful or just a simple life if he didn’t have to drag Lennie along with him. Finally this ongoing thought overwhelms Lennie so that he can’t stand not knowing whether it’s true or not, so that he states what had been in his mind for a while. “Well, I can go away. I’ll go right off in the hills an’ fin’ a cave if you don’ want me.” Lennie says that he will to this for George because he wants to know the truth: if George really doesn’t want Lennie to travel with him any more, or if he really does want Lennie to travel with him and someday “live off the fatta the lan”.
    Every incident and disaster that is caused by Lennie in one way or another is not exactly his fault. The only reason they occur is because Lennie doesn’t know his own strength or is at loss for what to do. The dog looked like he was going to bite Lennie, so he hit the dog on the head to hard. Curley’s wife panicked when Lennie was stroking her hair, so Lennie just kept holding on tighter. He then gets the visions and hallucinations from guilt of always messing things up for George and from doubt that George will come to look for Lennie and travel with him again. Even when George does come for him, Lennie asks George if he would rather Lennie and him part ways, because he doesn’t want to be a nuisance to him and keep giving George trouble. Lennie realizes that he has a character v.s. self conflict, which is the reason to why Lennie asks George this. He dies thinking of him and George on the farm and him tending rabbits, for George knows that Lennie will be at piece thinking that he doesn’t have a character v.s. self conflict.