Steinbecks of Mice and Men: The Theme of Love - Research Paper Example

Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men: The Theme of Love The novella by John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, is a story of love, explored through the relationships of men and the way in which they bond over hopes and dreams. The primary relationship in the story is between George and Lennie, a relationship that is based upon many aspects of their interactions, but also through strength of the bond of a common dream. Together they have forged goals for the future that they believe will provide them with happiness. This relationship is reflected through the relationship that Candy has with his dog, and much of what will happen to Lennie is foreshadowed through the events that surround dog. Where the love between the two men and between the man and his dog are rich tapestries of emotional bonding, the relationship between Curley and his wife is in contrast to the other relationships within the work of fiction. John Steinbeck’s discuses the nature of love as it is explored through the relationships of George and Lennie, Candy and his dog, and Curley and his wife and as it is defined by its association with death and aggression. According to the introduction of the 1994 Penguin edition of Of Mice and Men by Susan Shillinglaw, “John Steinbeck celebrated friendship in his life and in his fiction” (Steinbeck, 1994, vii). The way in which he termed friendship was through the love that two people who connected could share through mutual care and respect. In his 1938 journal he wrote “Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love” (Steinbeck, 1994, vii). What he created in this novella was an exploration of love as it related to friendship through a point of view that can be observed as part of his own belief systems on friendship. As well, his exploration of the topic June Edwards states that “Steinbeck’s stories are filled, not with perfect people, but with those who are dispossessed, who live at the edge of society, yet who survive and cling to life, no matter how painful the present or dismal future” (84). The relationships that he creates are often between men and explore the nature of connectivity that has the intent of supporting survival. The primary relationship in Of Mice and Men occurs between George and Lennie. The relationship is built upon their genuine affection for one another and is explored through the goals that they share in hoping they can put together enough money to buy a farm. Lennie is mentally challenged, meaning that he does not always comprehend the full context of the meanings in his world. George is fond of Lennie and does his best to protect him from the situations that his large size and mental challenges create for him. The love that is shared by George and Lennie is a pure love, a love that is developed without the complications of romance and through the dependency they have formed upon each other during their travels. The love itself is uncomplicated and can be seen for having developed through a natural appreciation for the characteristics that have positively affected one another. Most importantly, George understands Lennie and the nature of his existence, thus he has the capacity to protect him, no matter what form that protection must take. The relationship of Candy and his dog reflects the relationship of George and Lennie. Lennie is as innocent as the dog, both depending on the affirmations of their best friends in order to feel content. Just as Lennie is upbeat and innocent, so too is Candy’s dog, a beast of good meaning that reflects honest and openness in regard to the friend with whom he has shared his life. Steinbeck foreshadows Lennie’s fate through the dog, discussing the complicated emotions that will be tied to his death through the same ’merciful’ ending that the dog experiences. Just as the dog is killed to avoid the worse consequences he will suffer should he not have his life taken, so too must Lennie be relieved of the horrors he might face should his friend not spare him the fate that he will face should he live. Curley and his wife provide a contrast for the love that George and Lennie share. The love between Curley and his wife is strained, Curley not fulfilling his wife’s needs and leaving her lonely and without emotional, support. While George and Lennie have a self-sacrificing form of love between them, the love that Curley and his wife seem to have is more selfish and is reflected through the way in which each of the two characters seem to be centered on their own needs rather than on the needs of their partners. Where George gives Lennie the comfort of his dream, supporting it and encouraging the idea of a rabbit farm, even though Lennie may not have the gentility to raise such vulnerable creatures, Curley treats his wife with less concern for what she needs, but only with the concern with how she appears in the role of her wife. She is a reflection of him, rather than someone with whom he shares a life. Steinbeck understood how cold a relationship could be between a man and a woman. He wrote to his friend Bo Beskow in 1950 concerning Beskows failed relationship, “There is one other thing besides love that can tie two people together, and that is guilt. There are so many destructive relationships - or perhaps more, than there are creative ones” (Steinbeck, 1975, 105). George and Lennie share their life, creating their goals together and working towards fulfilling each other’s dreams to the extent that they are able, and without expecting the other to do more than is within their capacity to accomplish. The story is about the power of true love, the need for it to be mutually self-sacrificing. The story relates the way in which true love is not about the failures that two people commit against one another, but about the successes, even when those successes take the object of love from them. George successfully protects Lennie in the end, doing something that is unpleasant and accomplishing it in a way that best services Lennie. He helps him to imagine the future, the pleasure of accomplishing their goals together and living their dreams so that the last thoughts that Lennie has in his mind before death are those that are beautiful and comforting, his end made quick and painless through the beautiful dream that George evokes into Lennie’s mind. George and Lennie gave each other purpose in life, their goals creating a dream that would satisfy the needs that they each had for the comfort of their lives. Lennie desired to feel softness under his fingertips, quite possible a measure of femininity that was intended to create some role identification within the context of their relationship, without sexualizing their feelings towards one another. In contrast, Curley and his wife were provided a contrast that suggested antagonism and disappointment, their dreams not coming close to being fulfilled by the life that they were building together. Their life was a default to what they truly desired, thus creating a sadness between them that left them both lonely. George and Lennie were not lonely as long as they had the dream to give them purpose, but the purpose that Curley and his wife had seen for their future had become a memory, unaccomplished and without hope. Catherine MacKinnon explores the feminist point of view on the story the Steinbeck has crafted. She states that “Every relationship here is unequal: between humans and animals, between women and men, between some men and other men. It is about unequal love. In Steinbeck’s context, one I am calling socially male, loving means death. Specifically, it kills” (101). Through the many ways in which Lennie kills what he desires, his hands too strong and clumsy to gently cradle the delicate nature of what is ‘soft’, he expresses the male fear of love for a woman, her nature unfathomably delicate to the male and so easily broken. Although the nature of love is gently explored for its beauty, it is also explored for the fear that it produces and for the eventuality of the pain that it will bring through its loss. The story also provides for objectification of the focus of love, the male need to associate aggression and love defined through the many ways in which there is a dominant subject and a submissive object within the dynamics of the relationships. George is the subject of the love between himself and Lennie, just as the dog is the object of love between Candy and his pet. Lennie is then associated as an animal, a ‘living acquisition’, as Donovan and Adams call him (327). Spilka goes to far as to suggest that Steinbeck reveals a misogynistic core through his explorations of love, his association of love to a bitter and painful ending a reflection of how he frames his feelings in general about women (7). Certainly, the bitter and disempowered woman that is referred to only as ‘Curley’s wife’, her character without an individual identity allows for something of a commentary on Steinbeck’s concept of the importance of women. The novella titled Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a story of sorrow that explores the nature of love through its eventual ending in loss. The two main characters, George and Lennie, have a relationship that is based upon an understanding they have come to between them, although George has a better understanding of the greater picture than does Lennie. The love that is explored also provides for enough care from George that he spares Lennie from a horrific ending, perhaps reflecting the concept of letting go of someone for their own good. The story reflects a distinctly male perspective, the concept of objectification presenting a limited understanding of the female role in a relationship. The presentation of love within the novella expresses a point of view that suggests the unequal nature of love as the balance of a relationship is created through the dominance of one side to the dependence of another. Works Cited Donovan, Josephine, and Carol J. Adams. The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics: A Reader. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Print. Edwards, June. Opposing censorship in the public schools: Religion, morality and literature. Mahwah, NJ: Taylor and Francis, Inc, 2009. Print. MacKinnon, Catharine A. Women's Lives, Men's Laws. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007. Print. Spilka, Mark. Eight Lessons in Love: A Domestic Violence Reader. Columbia: Univ. of Missouri Press, 1997. Print. Steinbeck, John. Steinbeck: A Life in Letters. New York: Penguin Books, 1976. Print. Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin Books, 1994. Print. Read More