Helen Keller, a well known blind and deaf American Author, once said, “True friends are never apart. Maybe in distance, but never in heart.” The realism of this quote is shown throughout the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. John Steinbeck wrote this novella during The Great Depression, a time of great despair and economic decline, where citizens would migrate everywhere to get a job and that is exactly what the main characters, George and Lennie, do in Of Mice and Men. While George and Lennie were staying at the ranch, they met a series of new people, most of them coming in pairs. The character pairs in Of Mice and Men where the readers can see Helen Keller’s wise wisdom ring true is through George and Lennie, Candy and his dog, …show more content…
In Of Mice and Men George talked about how much better life would be without Lennie in it, but he never really meant it. During the last moments of the book, George found himself shooting his best friend because if George wouldn’t have done it, then Curley would have and George would never be able to live with himself knowing that his best friend died in a miserable way. Right before George shot Lennie, the two men were talking about how different they were from the other guys on the ranch and in their conversation they stated, “George was quiet for a moment. ‘But not us,’ he said. ‘Because---’ [Lennie] ‘Because I got you an’--- ’[George] ‘An’ I got you’”(104). At this moment Steinbeck shows the readers that George and Lennie will never forget each other or leave each …show more content…
In one instance, Candy and his dog are always together, until Carlson gets permission from Candy to shot the dog. It was only after a lot of convincing that Candy was able to let his dog go. Even as Carlson was taking Candy’s dog, Steinbeck described how Candy “lay back on his bunk and crossed his arms behind his head and stared at the ceiling”(48). This shows that Candy was very attached to his dog and that he couldn’t bear to see his dog be taken to his death. As stated earlier, Candy and his dog’s relationship is a foreshadow of what was to come in the book. This reigns true because the way that Carlson killed Candy’s dog was by shooting him “right back of the head. [Candy’s dog] wouldn’t even quiver”(44). Lennie dies the exact same way that the dog did because George shoots Lennie right in the back of the head, so that Lennie wouldn’t feel the