Is Lennie Responsible for His Actions in of Mice and Men Essay

Humans are responsible for their own actions, and the characters Of Mice and Men are no exception. In Steinbeck's novel, Curley’s wife’s actions result in her tragic death. She faces this situation when she denies the warnings she is given in the first place. Therefore, Lennie, or anyone else for that matter, can not be responsible for her death. Curley’s wife is the only one to blame because she is warned to stay away in the first place, has knowledge of Lennie’s strength, and still allows Lennie to pet her hair even after seeing the result of him petting the puppy.

     Using the two main characters of the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck shows that in life, responsibility must be taken in moderation. George takes on the challenge of caring for Lennie. In doing this, George loses a job in weed and is often short-changed when it comes to food and other amenities. Eventually, George realizes where he could be without Lennie and kills Lennie to free himself of the responsibly. Lennie, in a life where he has always been protected by loved ones, looks for responsibility in dependent pets. Each time he is given a chance with an animal, he always cares for it with gentile love. Often times, Lennie’s strength would be too much for the animal and they would fall under his powerful hands. In the end, both men see that they were not capable of conquering the tasks at hand. George

The author, Steinbeck, uses his own personal experience to “serve as an inspiration…” (Johnson 1) when writing this particular story. His past experiences also helped him for the future. Lennie, of all characters, is the least dynamic. He undergoes a significant amount of change and develops throughout the story. He has been isolated with George throughout his life. His sole purpose in life is to make George happy and to own a farm with George and take care of the soft rabbits. Lennie is the most innocent and defenseless. He also is the largest and strongest, which does not help in certain situations. Lennie is the protagonist in the story. He gains the readers sympathy by his intellectual disability and helplessness. Lennie murders things by accident such as the mouse in his pocket, the puppy and Curley’s wife. He enjoys the touch of and somehow uses those murders and experiences to scare him from doing it again. George’s opinion means the most to him.

“I'm going for my shotgun. I’ll kill the son-of-a-bitch myself.” (Steinbeck 96). In the book, Of Mice and Men, Curley shows that he is a very truculent person. He wants to diminish Lennie, Lennie doesn't realize there is a complication because he can not develop things in his mind as easily as the other men. At the end of the story, Lennie makes a very bad mistake and in response he gets killed because he becomes a danger to other men. Mercy killing in Lennie's situation was the better decision because his friend George shot him. George was putting him out of his , if George wouldn't have killed Lennie then Curley would have. Through the whole book Curley talks about his hatred for Lennie, and at the end he shows it by threatening Lennie's

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

In the Salinas River Valley, after the Great Depression, there were a large number of unemployed workers seeking jobs. In the fiction novel "Of Mice and Men," by John Steinbeck, Lennie Small is among one of those men. Lennie and his friend George both have just received jobs on a ranch as farm workers. What brings the two together is their dream to someday own their own land. Lennie has a lot of character and personality traits that define him. One trait that he has is he is very forgetful. Another trait he has is he is very curious. A final trait he has is that he is very reliant. Although he might not be the intelligent person in the book, he has a very well developed personality. Lennie demonstrates his personality and character

In his writing, Steinbeck literally compares Lennie to animals. For example, the author associates Lennie's strength to that of a horse. Furthermore, in the scene when after killing Curley's wife Lennie flees to the grove near the river, as George has told him to, Steinbeck describes Lennie moving "as silently as a creeping bear" and drinking like a weary animal.

A good friendship is needed to survive through tough times. Lennie respects George because George gives him comfort. George cares for Lennie so much that he considers him to be part of his family: “George said, he’s my cousin. I told his old lady id take care of him. He got kicked in the head by a horse when he was a kid” (Steinbeck 22). Aside from comfort and advice, Lennie also needs George because when he gets in trouble, George always manages to find a way to help him get out of it. When Lennie had got in trouble in Weed, George stays by his side and gives him advice that helps remain safe and calm. George has many opportunities to leave Lennie and change his lifestyle, but he needs Lennie just as much in order to help him through his own hardships. Lennie looks

Everyone makes mistakes and bad decisions. Whether they rarely happen or occur frequently, all people make them. In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, some of the characters make wrong choices. Lennie made many bad decisions throughout the book and he shouldn’t have done what he did, even if he thought he was doing the right thing at the time. When Lennie crushed Curley’s hand he definitely did not do the right thing because Curley already disliked him, Curley had much more power over him, and it gave Curley a reason to kill him.

In John Steinbeck’s work, Of Mice and Men, Lennie is compared to an animal multiple times which degrades from his sense of humanity and leads to a greater gap between George and himself causing Lennie to become almost nothing to the reader, and to the other characters in the story as well. While George has sharp figures and is precisely described, Lennie is shown as more animalistic, and not really given a lot of traits and characteristics. Also, the other people in the ranch/farm approach Lennie with fear and caution.

Lennie Small; A simple man with a simple mind in a not-so-simple world. Lennie is mentally handicapped, living in the 1930’s during the Great Depression with his friend and caretaker, George. Because Lennie has the mind of a child but the strength and appearance of a 30-year-old man, which often gets him in trouble. He poorly hides the evidence of his wrongdoing, and cannot fully understand the cost of his own actions which ultimately results in his death. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Lennie’s death is foreshadowed in conversations, Lennie’s tendencies of petting soft things too roughly, and events that happen on the ranch and in his past

In the story Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the protagonist of the story Lennie, as a sympathetic character. In the book, Lennie, a big strong guy and his friend George are on a journey away from their home town Weed, to a job on a ranch. Lennie is not the sharpest knife in the drawer and makes many mistakes. George and Lennie already had to leave their town from a mistake that Lennie made, holding on to a girls soft dress because he liked the feel of it. On the ranch, the boys are hoping to make just enough money to buy their own piece of land and live off of it. But after Lennie accidentally murdered his bosses wife from touching her hair because it was soft, he ran away. He didn’t know how to handle his strength abilities. Everyone on the ranch wanted to kill him but George didn’t so George killed him to protect Lennie. Since Lennie is clueless, forgetful, and has remorse for his actions, he has trouble getting his way through life and makes many mistakes on accident. Not understanding a lot of things makes Lennie seem like an innocent and dumb-witted character.

“If he tangles with you, Lennie, we’re gonna get the can. Don’t make no mistake about that. He’s the boss’s son. Look, Lennie. You try to keep away from him, will you? Don’t never speak to him. If he comes in here you move clear to the other side of the room. Will you do that, Lennie?” (Steinbeck, pg. 29) John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a tale about what it means to have a relationship. Steinbeck's story of George and Lennie's goal of obtaining their own ranch, and the challenges of reaching that goal, shows the nature of dreams, dignity, loneliness, and sacrifice. Lennie, the giant with mental issues who makes George's aim of owning his own ranch beneficial, ironically becomes the biggest challenge to achieving that goal. One of the most important characters in this story is George because he is different from all the other men of his time. The two words that best describe this character are bossy and diligent.

With this George said “I told his old lady I would take care of him”(Steinbeck 22). Even though Lennie couldn’t function alone and that he is a grown man. At

In the beginning of the novella, Lennie is portrayed as innocent and dependent on George. When Lennie had a mouse and George asked for it, Steinbeck describes Lennie’s reaction