Leaning on a friend

“Lean on Me” relating to Of Mice and Men

An Essay by: Cole Blake

After Listening to Lean on Me by Bill Withers I have noticed that the song connects to the Novella by John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men,This is for many reasons including some specific lines such as “I might just have a problem that you’d understand”. This line I think shows how George is a lot more intelligent than Lenny and probably helps him out when he cannot figure something out.

I imagine that Lenny really needs George to lean on because he needs a way to get out of tricky situations and answering questions because he is not very smart, while on the other hand George needs to lean on Lenny because he is not strong and probably needs help lifting things sometimes. I beleve that the quote, “Lean on Me when you’re not strong”  refers a lot to Lenny helping out George because of Lenny’s incredible strength. For example George may not get a job because Lennie was not the lend a helping hand. In another situation George may have a heavy backpack and miss the bus therefor he would need Lenny to help him carry it. Another great line from Lean On Me by Bill Withers is “I might just have a problem that you’d understand” this line shows that Lenny is not bright and needs George to lean on.  A good example would be how Lenny loses a lot of jobs because he is very bad at having conversations with strangers, George comes in handy here because he is very good a conversing. Another possibility is that Lennie would not be good with money and probably spend it all on pointless things. That was just one more reason Lenny needs to lean on George. This song also could possibly relate to my life and many others because I sometimes might be having trouble with my homework and need to lean on a family member. For example if I could not figure out a math problem I would have to swallow my pride and ask a friend or family member for help.  I might also have to swallow my pride and ask for help if I did not know how to spell a word on an essay.

In conclusion Lean on me is a great song to compare Of Mice and Men to. There are so many lines that I could talk about that relate to this book. I am very glad that I heard this song because I now know how much it relates to Of Mice and Men and also found new ways to interpret the book.