Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

Dominant Ti: George has is relatively reserved, but has a sharp tongue when he is impatient. His words don’t necessarily wring with love towards Lennie, although they are intended to protect him. He doesn’t particularly enjoy involving his emotions in his decision making process and doesn’t enjoy lengthy explanations. He can take apart the things that people say and determine whether to believe it based on whether or not it seems logical to him. Even though George’s dreams of settling down seem impossible, he never givesup on them. His answers are brief where possible and he tends to keep them to himself unless he trusts someone. George doesn’t usually feel the need to explain his actions to anyone, especially when his emotions are strong. After he kills Lennie, the other ranch workers ask him about it, but the only explanation he gives is, “I just done it.” At the same time, he doesn’t cry or visibly emote, and instead takes the men up on their offer of a drink.

Auxiliary Se: George gets bored when he’s not doing something. He wants to go places and do things, but because he’s stuck working farms with Lennie, he can’t truly see those dreams becoming a reality. He notices things about people’s facial expressions that help him to gage what mood they’re in and tries to keep Lennie away from stricter-types of people. He’s described as a sturdy, quick man, thus I think it’s relatively fair to assume that he’s a hard worker who pushes his body to extremes. At times, George wants to relax, but even during those times, he’s thinking about the 6 other things that he wants to do later. George likes to have fun, and he hates working ranches because, as he says, “[guys that work ranches] don’t have no fun.” At one point admits that he used to prank Lennie just for kicks, and that he even beat him. Even though George has big dreams for the future, he dwells in the present, making short-term plans (working ranches) rather than long-term ones.

Tertiary Ni: George likes quiet time to himself, which is one reason that he sometimes has difficulty being patient with Lennie. He’s an idealist, who dreams about settling down, having a quiet place to himself. He occasionally is aware of how events are going to play out before they do, and these notions are typically very accurate. He has inklings beforehand that Lennie is going to get into trouble and that people will want to hurt him because of it. His insights into what other people are like are usually decent, and he uses this skill to tell Lennie who to stay away from. He easily determines that Slim can be trusted with secrets and confides in him. George doesn’t readily believe whatever he’s told, and tends to question information that seems illogical or problematic. George is a minimalist, who carries with him only the things he needs (as opposed to Lennie, who wants to bring all the animals he catches).

Inferior Fe: Despite his often sharp tongue, George is a very moral person and genuinely wants to help Lennie. He doesn’t always know how to help him, but he feels very protective of him and even though he often hurts Lennie’s feelings doesn’t seek to do so. He does everything he can to teach Lennie right and to a certain extent, he’s successful (Lennie knows to make his bed in the morning). At the end of the book, he kills Lennie as an act of love, because he understands that what the other workers will do to him will be much worse. He’s not comfortable expressing his own emotions, but he’s very good at understanding other people’s.