In the third chapter of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, George and Slim come into the bunkhouse at the end of the first day's work and start to chat. Slim compliments Lennie for being a good, strong worker, but he is also curious as to why George and Lennie travel together. George explains that Lennie's Aunt Clara took him in when he was a baby, and when she died, Lennie simply followed George to work and it caught on. Thinking back makes George reminisce about his younger years with Lennie and all of the jokes he played on him just for the fun of it. George says he played the jokes on Lennie because he was "too dumb to take care of 'imself." George muses that teasing him made him feel like he was smart compared to Lennie. George gives some examples, as in the following passage:
"If I tol' him to walk over a cliff, over he'd go. That wasn't so damn much fun after a while. He never got mad about it, neither. I've beat the hell outa him, and he coulda bust every bone in my body jus' with his han's, but he never lifted a finger against me" (40).
What finally made George stop teasing Lennie was when he told him to jump into the Sacramento River. Lennie almost drowned because he can't swim, so George had to pull him out. All the while, Lennie was grateful that George had saved him, and that made George stop teasing Lennie. George doesn't clarify whether he stopped because out of guilt or out of a newfound maturity, but it was probably a little of both. As George started taking care of Lennie, he became his protector rather than his bully.
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