George Milton

George

appearance:
small and quick, dark of face, restless eyes, sharp and strong features

small, strong hands, slender arms, thin and bony nose

personality:

smart and intelligent, sensitive, caring, distant, adapting, no trouble maker, careful, protective
→ his behaviour is bipolar: he's short-tempered in general but with Lennie he's patient as soon as it concerns very serious issues.

Lennie and George grew up together and he started to take care of him when Lennie's aunt Clara died. George is like a big brother to Lennie even though he's sometimes mad at him because Lennie often gets into trouble. He's constantly trying to keep Lennie safe and one of his biggest desires is to make their dream, to own their own farm, come true. The first time we hear him telling Lennie the story about the dream it sounds like a fairytale, but later on, when it seems to come true, he starts telling it in another way.
In the group of the „underdogs“ (Crooks, Lennie, Old Candy) he's kind of the boss who's telling the others what to do and what (not) to tell. This responsibility is kind of forced upon him.

relationships

-Curley: distant, weary, careful because he knows that he could get into trouble with him

-Curley's wife: no big interaction
-Slim: admiration, understanding without many words, respect, trust
-workers: the closest “friends” they could get in their situation

One day when they were young, George told Lennie to jump into a lake even though he knew that he didn't know how to swim.
Then, as George realised that Lennie's in serious danger, he jumped into the water too and saved him.
Lennie didn't understand, that he just got into trouble because of his “hero” and he was so thankful that George started to feel guilty. Maybe this is a reason that he still feels responsible for Lennie. He probably searches a way to make up for what he has done.

It could also be possible to connect this situation to things happening in the current time.
For example after George was screaming at Lennie and Lennie proposed to leave and never come back, he replied in a way as he would be afraid that something's going to happen to Lennie just because of him.

→ page 20: “ I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody'd shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself.”

Also the relationship to Slim is special. He seems to be the first person after a long time, who's really listening to him. And probably he's the right person for George to tell his story, because he doesn't receive any cynical comments from him. It's just important to him not to keep everything in his own mind because there's so much he's worrying about that it would drive him crazy if he couldn't get it off his chest.
Slim's the one who takes on his burden.

George symbolises the perfect “mouse”.
Under all the other workers he nearly seems to be invisible, he doesn't get into big trouble and he's just like everyone else. A part of the big mass.

Lisa, Nicole