retarded cousin he has taken under his arm. Of mice and men follows him toward a difficult realization that the world is designed to prey on the weak at the start of the novella, george is something of an idealist despite his hardened, sometimes gruff exterior, he believes in the story of their future farm that he tells and retells to lennie. Of mice and men literary analysis expectation is the root of all heartache (william shakespeare) even the most promising expectations can go wrong, as they do for george and lennie in of mice and men by john steinbeck.