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Suffering in Of Mice and Men

In the novel, Of Mice of Men, John Steinbeck writes about two completely different characters George and Lennie. George is a bright hardworking man. Lennie is a large strong man who has the mind of a child and equally hardworking as George. Because Lennie has a hard time understanding how things work in life, he finds himself in a lot of trouble. George and Lennie travel around the Salinas Valley working on ranches. They are good friends and share the dream of owning a ranch where they will spend the rest of their lives living off the land. As different as they are and through struggles they maintain their friendship and a dream. In the novel there is lots of suffering endured by these characters. George, Lennie and Curly's wife are the best examples of people enduring suffering in the novel.

George suffers in several different ways. Since he promised Lennie's grandmother he would take care of Lennie and watch over him, George is forced to put up with Lennie's lack of common sense, like the time when he grabbed a lady's velvet dress in Weed and caused George to lose his job on the ranch. Or the time when Lennie seized up and choked Curly's wife in a panic she would scream, causing her to die which caused George and him to lose that job as well. Lennie made some terrible mistakes and George suffered for each one of them, whether it be having to leave town, or frantically running for his life, George has suffered due to Lennie's bad decisions. If George didn't make a promise to Lennie's grandmother to watch over Lennie he would have a lot more freedom and he would have more money than if he were sharing it with Lennie, whether it be buying a prostitute or drinking himself blind, or doing them both at the same time, George would be able to do it if he didn't have to watch over Lennie.

Lennie also suffers in a few ways, he suffers financially, mentally and socially. Since Lennie is not the smartest guy, it is very difficult for him to find work. He has a hard time listening and he has a very hard time making good decisions and because of that not many people want to hire him but George is there to help him find work. However, even though Lennie is able to find work he still is very low on cash because the ranch doesn't pay him what he deserves and what he does get paid is only just enough to live off. Lennie is very dependant on George, Lennie has a hard time making his own decisions, he has a hard time making the right decisions, this shows that Lennie suffers