Of Mice and Men - Cartoon Characteristics
Uploaded by imasterxx on Oct 16, 2003
After reading Of Mice and Men and watching the movie, I noticed a similarity to some of the cartoons I use to watch when I was younger. I decided to investigate further and discovered that the characters Lennie and George were depicted in several Warner Brothers cartoons.
One cartoon, which features a Lennie-like character, involves Bennie the big orange cat, who co-starred with Sylvester the cat. Sylvester: "Stop calling me George, my name’s Sylvester" Bennie: "But I can’t say Sylvester, George’. Bennie also acts similar to Lennie as far as his mental ability and thinking is concerned. Sylvester plays the George character that acts smart all the time.
Some other cartoons that include parodies of the two include the following: Bennie and George, Ren and Stimpy, Tom and Jerry, Tweety and Sylvester, Abominable Snowman and Bugs Bunny (shown in picture above). Ren and Stimpy and Bugs Bunny and the Abominable Snowman are the best examples I have found. Ren and Stimpy features Ren as a small Chihuahua who has all the smarts. Stimpy, however, is a big cat who, like Lennie, has very little common sense. The irony is that even though Ren is very smart, he often encounters conflicts that never dawn on Stimpy. This irony is also featured in the novel, as George has to deal with the problems of two people with no help from Lennie.
The Abominable snowman cartoon features a snowman called Hugo. The quote "I’m gonna hug him and pet him and call him George" is said by Hugo as he hugs Bugs Bunny in one of the episodes. This dialog and behavior is exactly how Lennie behaves and thinks in the book.
Other similarities found in the novel and several cartoons are the fact that the smarter character often must repeat himself to the bigger, dumber character. This is done several times in the novel as George repeats the story about the rabbits to Lennie. Another significant characteristic of the cartoon character modeled after Lennie is that he’s always hugging other characters with tremendous force. His hugs, which symbolize his love for the character, are at the expense of the other character. The affection he shows usually brings pain on the smaller, less fortunate character. In the novel, Lennie kills a mouse and a dog because of his mental disability, affection, and strength.
The cartoon parodies of the two characters in Of Mice and Men...