Of Mice and Men Violence Quotes Page 1

Though George and Lennie are friends through thick and thin, George is not above being gruff or angry in their relationship. While George clearly cares about his companion, there’s a certain amount of violence in the way that he treats him, possibly linked to the fact that he gets frustrated at how dense Lennie can be sometimes. Lennie’s softness (in spite of his big size) sets off George’s sharpness considerably. The violence here seems to be more emotional (and less severe) than physical violence.

Even when George threatens Lennie with physical violence, it’s much more in the vein of a parent threatening a child with spanking (albeit a gruff parent) than of serious adult violence. We don’t get the sense that George would ever do any actual physical harm to Lennie – at least not out of malice.

Lennie has kind of a man-child’s violence about him. From this episode, it’s clear he knows the result of his being too rough is that things die. Still, rather than adjust his roughness, Lennie just hopes to find bigger animals. Again, it’s unclear whether Lennie grasps the danger and risk of violence. Though he’s as big as he is, he’s like a child in being unable to figure out when playful roughness becomes dangerous violence.