The Danger of Loyalty Imagine doing everything for someone worthwhile and then knowing that you won’t get that in return. Loyalty is one of the most kingly traits in the eyes of past and current generations. This is why it receives so much attention, as it can be a part of a healthy and inspiring relationship or as a character in certain literature. Besides its traditional importance, it also finds a place in the world today. Many people today struggle with the significance of loyalty. They either take it for granted or they don’t acknowledge it at all. That is a big problem in the novella Of Mice and Men because it’s about the story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of a new job during the Great Depression. George has to look out for Lennie, whose mental disability makes him childish and in a way dangerous. Soon things start to take a turn and everything starts to almost fall out of place. In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George is shown as a caretaker and a father figure for Lennie. Lennie has a hard time remembering the things George tells him to do and he ends up losing George’s trust towards the end of the novella. George and Lennie's true sides came out since arriving at the ranch. Lennie shows a lack of reliability to George considering he murdered Curley's wife, he killed his puppy, and he killed a mouse.
These particular examples show Lennie not continuously being loyal to George because of the promises George proceeded to make to Lennie. Steinbeck proves to his readers how Lennie shows a lack of trust by having him kill Curley's wife. Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife by shaking her so hard that her neck breaks. Lennie likes animals and soft things, but he is a big, strong man. Curley's wife finds Lennie in the barn grieving the death of his puppy, and she tries to comfort him by allowing him to stroke her hair. Lennie then gets overwhelmed by the experience, grabs her hair too hard, and makes Curley's wife upset. She eventually starts screaming and Lennie covers her mouth and starts shaking her to try and make her stop. Lennie does not intend to be harmful to others, he just loves to touch soft things, and when Curley's wife lets him touch her hair he is very amazed by the experience and loses control only because he starts to freak out when she starts to scream. Steinbeck confirms to his readers how Lennie shows a lack of trust by having him kill his puppy. Again Lennie is very attracted to soft things..and unfortunately, puppies have soft fur, which automatically made Lennie instantly attached. Slim ends up giving Lennie one of his puppies, and George warns him about petting the puppy too rough and taking it out of its nest. In Chapter 5, Lennie accidentally kills his puppy by being too rough with it. When Lennie is holding the dead puppy, he looks at it and says, 'You ain't so little as mice. I didn't bounce you hard' (Steinbeck 42). Interestingly, Lennie is not upset at himself. He is upset at the puppy for dying. He does not take responsibility for being too rough with the puppy and begins to worry about George's reaction. He fears that George will not allow him to tend the rabbits and contemplates hiding the dead puppy. This demonstrates that Lennie is not loyal to George when he specifically tells him to be careful and to not be too rough with the puppy. Steinbeck proves to his readers how Lennie shows a lack of trust by having him kill a mouse. In the opening scene of the novella, George yells at Lennie for carrying a dead mouse in his pocket. Lennie demands that the mouse is dead when he finds it and tells George that he is simply petting the mouse because it feels good. After George asks Lennie to hand over the mouse, Lennie gives the dead mouse to George, who throws it into the brush on the other side of the pool. Later on, Lennie retrieves the dead mouse from the brush while he is collecting sticks for their campfire. “Ain't a thing in my pocket,” Lennie said cleverly. “I know there ain’t. You have it in your hand. What you got in your hand- hidin’ it?” “I ain’t got nothin’, George. Honest.” “Come on, give it here.” Lennie held his closed hand away from George’s distraction. “It’s only a mouse, George.” “A mouse? A live mouse?” “Uh-uh. Just a dead mouse, George. I didn’t kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it dead.” “Give it here!” Said George. “Aw, leave me have it, George.” Lennie then begins to cry because he is upset that George threw his dead mouse. George thinks it is no big deal because the mouse is dead anyway and he couldn’t do much with it. Lennie might end up killing George just as he kills all the little animals he acquires as pets. Lennie's personality is like a child. He is innocent and mentally handicapped with no ability to understand big things like death. Lennie's incredible strength combined with his lack of intelligence on things makes him dangerous, and he needs George to keep him out of trouble, but George could easily be in danger because of how powerful Lennie is. George later begins to realize that his relationship with Lennie cannot continue. Lennie is becoming too dangerous.
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Of Mice and Men is about the loss of loyalty between George and Lennie. Every person who has ever lived can most likely relate to the feeling of betrayal that George felt throughout the novel. The loss of that loyalty is unfortunately something everyone has once felt. Throughout the pain and suffering of the characters in Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck paints a picture of how the lack of loyalty can create fear and a lack of trust. In the real world, only one-third of Americans say most people can be trusted. A harsh reality, for sure, yet a reality everyone has faced at some point in their life.
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