Of Mice and Men Essay

Acceptance: Something we all Look Forward to
Where does judgment lead? Why does someone judge an individual he or she does not know? Is it a factor of satisfaction? Acceptance is a factor that may fill satisfaction. Accepting someone for who they are is a challenge everyone battles in their life. It seems as though John Steinbeck, a writer in the 1930’s, understands this challenge and decides to write a powerful novel titled Of Mice and Men to help his audience develop better acceptance of others. Accepting someone for who they are is a main concept Steinbeck tries to teach by using his characters George, Slim, and Lennie in the 1930’s time period to help him.
Throughout the novel, Lennie and George are pictured to have a really good friendship. When Lennie and George meet in Weed, Lennie finds out that George is close to his Aunt Clara. After Lennie’s Aunt Clara passes George is to be there as a friend and caretaker of Lennie. Lennie tells George if he does not want him around he can just leave and go somewhere where George will not be bothered by him. Lennie states, “‘Well, I could. I could go off in the hills there. Someplace I’d find a cave’” (Steinbeck 13). George immediately lets Lennie know he cares by questioning him, “‘Where would you go? . . . How’d you eat?’ (13). George reassures Lennie, by saying, “‘I want you to stay with me, Lennie’” (13). No matter how mad George gets at Lennie, he knows he will always be there for him. Even though Lennie is not all there mentally, George knows he needs to be there and accept him for who he is. George accepting Lennie made George realize how much he really does want to be there for Lennie, and also made him feel like he is needed by someone such as Lennie. Early in the novel, George talks to Slim about how he used to not treat Lennie with as much respect as he should. He talked about how he always feels smart compared to Lennie when he is with him. George turns into confessing mode about how bad he treats Lennie because he is so dumb, and begins to feel bad. Slim replies talking about Lennie to George by saying, “‘He’s a nice fella . . . Guy don’t need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus’ works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain’t hardly ever a nice fella’” (40). Even though Lennie is not that smart Slim accepts him and says he is a nice fellow and a really dedicated worker. With this said Steinbeck uses Slim to demonstrate that most people who are smart are not very nice but, ones like Lennie do not come around that often and he learns to respect Lennie for that. Steinbeck uses the 1930’s setting and time period of segregation and inferiority of dark skinned people demonstrating an incredible example of acceptance. In chapter 4, readers are introduced to Crooks, a dark skinned stable buck who is lonely and gets treated unfairly, much as a slave. Lennie goes to the barn and Crooks becomes very aggressive and defensive when Lennie

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