Lennie's Dependence on George

In part three of Of Mice and Men, Lennie is forced to stand up for himself during a fight. Lennie is a very shy person. He does not talk very much and when he does, he is usually punished by George. Lennie also relies heavily on George. Whenever they have to do or say something, Lennie waits for George to tell him what to do. Back in part two we see this occur when the boss orders Lennie to speak for himself, "'Listen, Small!'... 'What can you do?' In a panic Lennie looked at George for help," (22). Even in this scenario when the boss literally tells LENNIE (not George) to answer him, Lennie still counts on George to reply. We see this reliance again in the third part during the fight. When Curley beats Lennie up, he smacks his face and punches him, but Lennie still holds back, "Lennie gave a cry of terror. Blood welled from his nose. 'George.' he cried. 'make 'um let me alone, George,'" (63). In this moment where Lennie is being ripped to shreds by Curley, he is still too scared to stand up for himself.

This dependence on George may be an issue for Lennie later on. In most books, the good people have good things happen to them and the bad people have bad things happen to them. Lennie doesn't purposely freeze up and not say anything, yet he is constantly yelled at for it. I think one of the reasons Lennie gets so scared is because of George. George has a very quick temper and doesn't filter what he is going to say before he says it. Before the interview at the ranch, George tells Lennie, "You jus' stand there and don't say nothing. If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won't get no job..." (6). I think the reason Lennie got freaked out at the interview was because George was going to get mad at him if he talked.