In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck relationships between the characters are essential to their survival. The character Crooks points this out. He said if you don't have someone you'll go crazy because you wouldn't know if what's happening to you is real.(this is explained on pg 73) Lennie and George are each other life lines. George needs Lennie so he won't go spending money on "cat houses" pg 11 and so he won't be constantly thinking about himself. Lennie however just needs George to keep him out of trouble. But together they both hold the dream of owning a piece of land and living off of it. They meet each others needs because George needs to be paying attention to Lennie and Lennie can just be himself reliant on George. Even though George says he could do so much without Lennie on page 11 he doesn't truly mean it because in the end he has the hardest time ending Lennie's life. In conclusion George never wanted to exploit Lennie because all the times he talked about him in a mean way talking about how dumb he was he said it with love he always said something good along with it. An example is when he's telling Slim about all the fun he had with Lennie playing pranks on him and him not getting it bit always being nice about it. pg 49