With Friends Like These By Dorothy Rowe Analysis

(Grabber)In the article “With Friends like These” psychologist Dorothy Rowe, discusses her ideas towards friendship. In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the two main characters, George and Lennie, travel from workplace to workplace together. Lennie has a learning disability and struggles to comprehend simple things. Because of this Lennie is sometimes seen as a burden to George. True friends should thrive off of eachother. Companions should also be treated as equals. Acquaintances should provide each other with enjoyment in life. Because of this George and Lennie are not true friends.

True friends should thrive off of eachother and George and Lennie do not. In the text “With Friends Like These” the author explains how friends …show more content…
In the article Rowe explains how equality in a friendship is crucial so the friendship does not become one sided. Rowe states that friendships should have “Mutual affection, trust, loyalty, and acceptance” (Rowe 95). Without these mutual qualities friendships become unbalanced which then results with someone having more power than someone else. When someone in the friendship is given power they can become controlling and then the friendship can become unhealthy. Rowe discusses how friends should have mutual trust in eachother. Trust is important because when there is trust then people can accept each other and like Rowe discusses when people are accepting it helps to see the other person as an equal. In contrast due to Lennie's learning disability he is not very bright and struggles to remember things. Because of this George does not want Lennie talking to their new boss on the ranch. George tells Lennie to let him do all the talking. When the boss starts to question why Lennie is not talking Lennie looks “helplessly to George for instruction”(Steinbeck 75). Lennie is scared he is going to mess up and disappoint George. This is an example of how their friendship is not equal because George is controlling over Lennie. Because of Lennie's disability George has seen it as an opportunity to take advantage of Lennie. This has created an imbalance in their friendship making it an unhealthy friendship, and unhealthy friendships are never true friendships. If George treated Lennie as an equal then their friendship would be more beneficial for the both of them. George would not feel as obligated to take care of Lennie and Lennie would learn to be more independent. George and Lennie are not equal in their

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With Friends Like These By Dorothy Rowe Analysis

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