A Tragic Friendship In John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men'

As we go through life we go through things like friendships, loneliness, and dreams. Sometimes the things we go through are hard moments in our life, but sometimes good and happy moments. As we read the book “Of Mice and Men” the author John Steinbeck writes about many characters in the book. He clearly disguises, each character 's problem. And the two characters that mainly stood out were George and Lennie because they both traveled and worked together, to get money for their dream ranch. So the author writes about their problems, whether it 's similar problems they are sharing or different personal problems. In the end of the book Lennie dies because George kills him, but the questions is why must Lennie die? And why must George do it?

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, is a compelling novel set during the Great Depression. The novel teaches itś readers about the value of companionship, sacrifice, and dreams. In doing so, it includes several examples of euthanasia, or mercy killing. At the end of the story, George has to kill Lennie to protect him. Despite the fact that Lennie was George's best friend, George did the right thing because if Lennie wouldn't have been shot by George then someone else couldve gotten to him first and made him suffer. Also, If George wouldn't have killed Lennie, then Lennie would have been locked away, frightened and all alone.

But Lennie, perfecting his craft one incident at a time, messes everything up. Lennie’s biggest fear was not being able to tend the rabbits when they get their own land, and he loved those rabbits. Lennie grieving over killing his puppy starts conversing with Curley’s wife, a decision he should have never made. Lennie got caught in an unbelievable predicament with Curley’s wife, he was holding her mouth shut while pulling her hair, getting angry at her tell her to shut up, because he does not want to get in trouble. Because, if he did he would not be able to tend the rabbits. As she continued to scream, louder and louder as seconds went by, Lennie with his harmless intentions did not know what to do, so he shook her to get her to shut up but unintentionally broke her neck (Steinbeck, 91). Lennie knowing what to do if he ever did something bad, escapes to the hideout that only him and George know about. Eventually, everybody finds out about Curley’s wife when Candy found her dead body in the barn. At this moment, George knew he had two decisions that would change his life forever. He would either side with his new friends and find Lennie, or escape with Lennie and find another place to work. George makes the right decision and sides with his friends, but he knew they wanted Lennie dead, so he decided to do it himself. George met up with Lennie at their hideout and told him to look the other way and envision everything good about the farm, not wanting to harm Lennie he made sure he was as happy as he could be at that very moment. As George started to describe the farm to him, he put the gun to the back of his neck and pulled the

Lennie is an innocent, unknowing of what's going on around him type of person. All he really knows is that he likes things that feel soft and that is what ends up getting him kill. He is so focused on not having George mad at him and not letting him tend to the rabbits that he accidentally kills Curley's wife. “"Don't you go yellin'," he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.”(xx) Lennie just killed Curley's wife and he has done a lot of bad things but never murdered someone. This is the last straw for George and when he hunts him down in the woods, he kills Lennie because he is at a loss of hope for Lennie. Lennie has a tendency to kill small animals by accident and

The Great Depression affected millions of people in America, two of those people affected were George and Lennie. George and Lennie are migrant workers that struck a job in California. George can be described as the brains of the partnership, while Lennie is more of the muscle. In the story Lennie has a fascination with feeling soft objects. This later gets them in trouble in the town of Weed. Once they get to the job, they go months will no big problems. Until, Lennie accidentally killed The owner’s son’s wife. After this happened Lennie ran off, and all the workers went to go find him and kill him. George does find Lennie before any of the other workers, and even with the chance to escape, he shoots Lennie. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the murder of Lennie was not Justified.

A piece of text from the book Of Mice and Men says that, “Guys like us got no family. They make a little stake an’ then they blow it. They ain’t got nobody in the worl’ that gives a hoot in [heck] about ‘em” (Steinbeck 104). Therefore, George was pointing out to Lennie that they have what most guys in their time period don’t, they have each other and George is telling Lennie that that’s how he wants it to stay. George doesn’t want to kill Lennie, but he feels like has to. George is going to regret this in his future. A different quote I found is when George and Lennie are talking, “Lennie said ‘I thought you was mad at me, George.’ ‘No, Lennie. I ain’t mad. I never been mad, an’ I ain’t now. That’s the thing I want ya to know’” (Steinbeck 106). Therefore, this quote tells us that George doesn’t want to kill Lennie, but he feels as if he needs to. Lennie was George’s only family and George wants Lennie to know that before he kills him. George cares about Lennie and George is not going to be happy after Lennie is gone for a little bit. The act of George killing Lennie is

Finally, John Steinbeck shows off the bullying and meanness as intentional and contrasts it to Lennie’s unintentional meanness, such as when he hurts the puppy (pg 85), the mouse (pg 5), and kills Curley’s wife (pg 91). When Curley wants to fight it is intentional and violent. George explains Lennie’s violence when he says that Lennie "never done it in meanness" (pg 104). Lennie kills because he does not know his own strength – he cuddles or loves to hard. Also, he panics and reacts without thought, such as when he pulled the woman’s dress. (pg 41) Also, showing a contrast in motive is that Lennie is so upset by what he has done, especially to Curley’s wife. He is the only one who shows real remorse.

In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck George kills his best friend Lennie. George’s reasoning for this is that Lennie is killing too many people and has become a burden. Lennie does not realize that he is doing wrong by accidentally killing animals and people. George says that he is doing this for other’s benefit when really he is doing this for his own good. This was wrong of George and he is guilty because even though Lennie was accidentally

In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie learn to travel and experience the world together as they take on a new job working on a ranch in central California "bucking barley" for the ranch owner and his son. Lennie, not being able to control his actions, hurts too many people and things and men were chasing after the two, so George decides to take action and shoot Lennie. Although some may disagree, George did the right thing by shooting Lennie because he could not have avoided hurting someone else in the future, he could not eventually learn that the things he did were wrong due to his disability, and he could not learn to eventually control his own strength.

George eventually finds out about the death of Curley’s wife so he sets out and kills Lennie by the river. Lennie dies a gentle death, thinking only the happiest thoughts. The moment before he died, his mind is filled with their farm and there rabbits and there dream. Steinbeck reminds you that Lennie is still as gentle as he ever is, despite the fact that he killed

The first reason why George is justified in killing Lennie is because Lennie is worthless like Candy’s dog. Candy’s dog is causing trouble for the men, and suffering while it's still alive “Ain’t nothing left for him. Can’t eat, can’t see, can’t even walk without hurtin’( Steinbeck 47). Like Lennie, the dog is physically impaired. The dog can hardly walk and Lennie has some trouble moving around. Lennie is worthless, because he does

By killing Lennie in John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice And Men, George protected himself, prevented unnecessary harm from coming to Lennie, and ultimately, he let Lennie die happy.

One reason George had to kill Lennie is because his punishment could have been worse. For example, on page 96 curley said he was going to take a shot gun and shoot him in the guts. “I’m gonna get him. I’m going for my shotgun. I’ll kill the big ______________ myself. I’ll shoot ‘im in the guts. Come on guys.” (Steinbeck 96). This states that Curley and other fellow ranchers were going to do horrible things to Lennie. Since George didn’t want Lennie to suffer, George took

In John Steinbeck's classic novella, Of Mice and Men, George makes the decision of killing Lennie because he knows it is in Lennie's best interest. His act of killing Lennie is not considered criminal. George has good intentions in killing his companion. George is trying to prevent Lennie from being tortured and from his constant desire to please George and not cause trouble. Additionally, Lennie repeatedly places himself in difficult situations, and as a result, brings George into the circumstances. There is a close friendship between George and Lennie, and George had carefully thought out whether or not he

As Thomas Aquinas states, “There is nothing on this earth more prized than true friendship.” Friends cheer each other up when they are sad and support them when they are happy. In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, two migrant workers, George and Lennie, arrive as newcomers on the ranch. Throughout the story, different problems are thrown their way, and their friendship is tested with each one. George shows how true friendship requires sacrifice because friends sacrifice personal freedom, they protect each other, and they sacrifice emotional energy.