Of Mice and Men Central Conflict

Of Mice and Men is a Novella by John Steinbeck that was published in 1939. Lennie and George work bucking barley and travel from place to place getting monthly stakes. Their dream is to have their own farm, where the mentally deficient Lennie, can tend all of the rabbits. Thesis: The central conflict in Of Mice and Men is character versus self. The character is Lennie, he is to dependent on George and he cant learn to be independent.

The first conflict that comes to Lennie is character versus society. This conflict comes up when George is telling Slim why they had to leave their previous town, Weed. In weed, Lennie like a girl’s dress, so he “petted” it and he wouldn't let go and George has to forcibly make him let go.

“By that time, Lennie’s so scare all he can think to do is hold on. So i have to sock him in the head with a fence picket to make him let go.”

“The guys in weed set a party out to lynch Lennie. So we sat out in an irrigation ditch all day.”(42)

This quote shows that Lennie is not mentally able to think for himself in stressful situations such as described in the quote. If George was not always there to chaperon or babysit Lennie, then Lennie would have died long before he found George because Lennie has no common sense and he cant control his own strength. George made Lennie let go of the dress by causing him pain that would have severely injured a normal person, but to Lennie it was just enough distraction to let go of the dress.

    The second conflict that Lennie encounters is character versus character. The opposing character in this situation is Curley, the ranch  owner’s son. Curley strongly dislikes Lennie because of his size and stupidity. In this quote Curley is beating up Lennie and Lennie is begging for help from George.

    “‘George,’ he cried. ‘Make ‘um let me alone George.’(63)

    Before George says anything, Lennie just stands there like a big punching bag.I think Curley picks on Lennie the most because Lennie is the only person not as intelligent as Curley. In the time of the Great Depression, people weren't sensitive to people with mental retardation and people like Curley were not tolerant of people that need special help. This quote shows that Lennie would just stand and die if he didnt get instruction from George in a situation like a fight. This quote also shows that Lennie is extremely dependent to George he can kill somebody so he can fight his own battles, he just cant live on his own with out George.

The third and final conflict is character versus self. This quote is taken right before Lennie’s death and he is hallucinating about Aunt Clara and giant rabbits. The hallucination of Aunt Clara addresses the exact issue of Lennie being to dependent to George.

    “‘Hes been doing nice things for you alla time. When he have a piece of pie, he give you more that half. And if there was any ketchup why he'd give it all to you.’”(101)

    This quote shows that Lennie gets so much from George and in reality, Lennie gives nothing back except a burden on George. George helps Lennie so much, that he sacrifices his own rations. George would even go out of his way to find Lennie’s favorite food, ketchup. This quote shows that Lennie is guilty somewhere deep down. He realizes that George does everything for him and it shows when he has visions. It may have been a made up conversation while Lennie was hallucinating with his conscious or it could have been a negative memory in Lennie’s small mind. I think the more reasonable answer is that Lennie realizes that he is a great burden on George and he feels guilty. I find it surprising that Lennie has the mental capacity to understand a complex feeling such as guilt.

    Of Mice and Men is really about Lennie’s internal conflict with himself, because he is too dependent to George. Mentally challenged people need to be supervised and in the case in Of Mice and Men George constantly has to supervise Lennie or he will do something crazy, like kill someone. I interpret that there needs to be people trained to teach  mentally challenged people and look after them to make sure that they dont do anything wrong or hurt themselves and someone else.