Youngju Kwon
Per. 3
11/9/18
Of Mice and Men “The Losers Club”
By contrast to what George Miller and the other characters in Chapter 4 are described as, George
would be one of the few characters in Of Mice and Men to be classified as being superior than other
characters in the story. In other words, he would be a “winner” apart from the other characters in the
story. George Miller is a great caretaker, sharp, and has a planned future. In page 15 of Chapter 1, George
tells Lennie to go “hide in the brush” until he comes for him. This certainly is an act of kindness because
of how Lennie was a mentally disabled person and how recently George feels frustrated during the
incident at Weed. Another example is also in Chapter 1 but on page 14. George explains, “We’re gonna
get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs.”
What George is emphasizing is their “American dream” where they would “have a little house” along
with, “a couple of acres” and, “some animals.” (in this case the cows and pigs). This would signify that
George is trying to save enough money for his life goal. However, none of the other protagonists featured
in the story have no correlation to even having a future, where characters like Curley or Carlson would
spend their days in town drinking and hanging out with prostitutes.
Although Lennie Smalls in the story Of Mice and Men is regarded as George’s companion, he is
described as slow, relies on George for almost everything, and has a mental disability that would change
his mental capacity. Therefore, he is portrayed as one of the losers in the story. In page 63 in Chapter 3
during the fight between Curley and Lennie, Lennie would cry to George saying, “Make ‘um stop,
George.” until Slim decided to join the fight. This would strongly correlate to how Lennie is a person who
would not be able to handle himself in such dire situations like defending or handling such simple tasks.
Therefore, he only relies on George’s help in order to live and perhaps learn such lessons. Another
example is in page 22, where George “scowled” at Lennie, resulting in “Lennie dropping his head in
shame at having forgotten.” This would have made it clear that Lennie could have poor memory capacity
since he had a promise with George yesterday about not talking. This is clear in page 15 when Lennie
states that he, “ain’t gonna...say a word.”
As considered the oldest character in Of Mice and Men, Candy is a disabled, depressed, and
anxious worker in the ranch. His only companion, which is a dog, was murdered tragically in Chapter 3
by Charleston. All of these characteristics would classify him as a “loser” in the story. During the
conversation between Carlson and Candy in pages 47-48, Candy eventually gives up his dog for Carlson
to shoot. The reason is because of how the dog was too old and dirty that it could no longer live in the
house. However, Candy decides that the dog should stay. However w...
