Of Mice and Men Essay

Submitted By skachit
Words: 451
Pages: 2

Throughout the novella Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are developed as foils. To begin with, George and Lennie's physical attributes are completely different. In the book, George is written as a character that has a small stature. As the novella begins, Steinbeck describes George by saying, “The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features" (Steinbeck 2). Contrasting to George's small stature, Lennie's stature is big. Right after describing George, Steinbeck begins describing Lennie by saying, "...a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders, and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little..." (2). Besides comparing their physical attributes, George and Lennie are opposites intellectually. George is seen as character that is wise. As George and Lennie are sitting around the fire, eating their beans, George explains a plan to Lennie and says, "Well, look. Lennie - if you jus' happen to get trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an' hide in the brush" (15). Even though Lennie hasn't done any wrong yet, George knows that Lennie will bound to get into trouble and so in advance, George is smart enough to comes up with a plan. On the other hand, Lennie isn't really bright. When George begins to open up to Slim about Lennie, George starts to explain Lennie's mental state and says, "But he gets in trouble alla time because he's so God damn dumb" (41). Not only are George and Lennie opposites intellectually their personality traits are also different. George is a character that is seen with adult like traits. As George and Lennie are sitting near the