The Effects Of Choices In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

”So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do”(Steinbeck 41). After this George helps Lennie leave the town so he doesn’t go to a mental institute. George is always looking out for Lennie and will not let anything happen to him.

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

Repeatedly, Lennie asks George the same questions about concerning if they will get the farm and when. This obsession is like a child needing to hear the same story over and over again, and Lennie wants George to describe the setting of the farm. Lennie’s so focused on getting the farm that he does everything under George’s guidance, because he believes that he will get the reward of living on the farm with him where he can tend rabbits. At the end of the novel, when Lennie is afraid and wants to be assured by George that everything is okay although he made the mistake with Curley’s wife, he asks again if George can paint the picture of life on the farm again. “ ‘How’s it gonna be? We gonna get a little place.’ ...’For the rabbits,’ Lennie shouted...’And I get to tend the rabbits.’ ...Lennie giggled with happiness. ‘An’ live the fatta the lan’”(105). When people are slow-witted, they are simple-minded and have emotions like children. Lennie is that sort of person. Similar to a child, he needs to be continually reassured that everything he wants and needs is everything that George is going to provide. Similarly, Curley’s wife is immature and needy like a child, continually obsessed with wanting attention. Unfortunately, she tries to get attention from Lennie, who is too slow-witted to understand what is going on. Not realizing why she’s

Some people have to face difficult decisions in their life. In fact, some people have to make decisions between life and death. In John Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are best friends and migrant workers during the Great Depression. Many characters face discrimination in the story including Lennie, Crooks, and Candy. Lennie is a tall guy who has a mental disability which makes it hard to distinguish between right and wrong. Crooks faces racism everyday, while Candy deals with ageism. On the other hand, Curley is a small man who is very intimidated by men bigger and stronger than him. George acts as Lennie’s caretaker and best friend. But, George realizes he has to make a life-changing decision when Curley threatens to hunt

12-13) George has every reason to be frustrated with Lennie, but it is still sad to see that Lennie is disappointed in himself for frustrating George. Lennie tells George that if he does not want to look after him anymore then he will go and live in the mountains by himself. (Pg. 14.

Might jus' as well spent' all my time telling you things and then you forgot ‘em, and I tell you again"(Steinbeck 4) and "Tried and tried,"(Steinbeck 4). These quotes show that George should have killed Lennie because no matter George would always tell Lennie that don't do or don't say anything until George told but,

In the same book George has some other ideas. George also had a goal of living on a farm. He wanted Lennie out of his life and be free with a woman. “I wish I wouldn’t have to deal with you.

“I want you to stay with me, lennie. Jesus christ somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself. No, you stay with me. Your aunt clara wouldn’t like you running off by yourself even if she is dead” - (Steinbeck 13). This quote shows George looking out for Lennie.

Lennie's dream was to live on a farm with George and attend his rabbits. Although, Steinbeck wrote how rabbits secretly equals freedom, so when George killed Lennie, he was trying to help him get his freedom from everything that happened during the Great Depression. On page 81 it says, “Now I won’t get to tend the rabbits.” Lennie says this when he gets into trouble because Lennie wants George to let him take care of the rabbits on the farm they want to own.

After the farm hands and Curley found Curley’s wife dead in the barn they all set out in search for Lennie “When you see ‘um, don’t give ‘im no chance. Shoot for his guts.” (Steinbeck:97) Lucky for Lennie, George knew where he would be hiding, back at the bush where George told him to go if he got in trouble. George ran ahead of the group and found Lennie in the bush. Lennie told George what he had done and George tried to tell him that it would be all fine. Lennie gets George to tell him about the future again and then George takes out Carlson’s lugar that he had taken and shot Lennie in the back of the head. He believed he was

They dream of living on their own on a farm. Lennie says, “An' live off the fatta the lan', an' have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that George” (Steinbeck, 1937, 14). Lennie’s dream is to tend the rabbits while George tends the rest of the farm, but they do not have the money yet to go buy a place to live. They need to go make some money first, so they find a job at a small farm. The ranch agrees to take the two in only because of Lennie’s huge build. George needs to keep Lennie in line though, so they can quickly earn the money they need, and then leave the ranch. George is afraid that Lennie will mess up their opportunity at the farm because Lennie cannot control his strength or actions. A few days later the dream ends, and George loses all hope. Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife, and Curley wants revenge. George knows that there is no chance that Lennie will make it alive, and he knows his dream is over. George has to make a decision of either killing Lennie painlessly himself, or letting Curley do it however he wants. George makes a tough decision, and decides to kill Lennie himself. Steinbeck says, “And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought back the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head.

George cares deeply about Lennie, and he always looks out for him even though Lennie agitates George sometimes. George ensures Lennie he is not mad at him for killing Curley’s wife, and George tells Lennie that they will live the American Dream together. George says, “Ever’body gonna be nice to you,” and he tells Lennie that there will be “no more trouble,” (Steinbeck 106). Lennie is very happy to hear that he can tend the rabbits, therefore, when Lennie dies, he is dreaming about rabbits. Lennie dreaming is far more peaceful than him being tortured until his death.

“’I tried not to forget. Honest to God I did, George.’” (Steinbeck 4). This quote shows how much effort Lennie puts in to not forget things, and seems to be disappointed in his ability not to remember. He is shown to sometimes get upset at himself for forgetting important information, or making a bad decision that he gets in trouble for. An example of this is when Lennie also accidentally killed a puppy he was given on the ranch. He got mad at himself for killing the puppy and was upset that George would not let him tend the rabbits on their dream farm. Having their own farm where they could live off of what they grew was George and Lennie’s goal and dream. Not having the ability to hold in information and not being able to think before doing something makes Lennie also come off as not smart. This is shown to be something that hurts George when the boss suspected that George was using Lennie to take his pay. In the end, Lennie knows he can be an inconvenience to George and others no matter how much he tries not

“An’ have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it.” George and Lennie had an American dream they both shared. George was ecstatic about “ livin’ off the fatta the lan’,” staying inside if it rained and stay warm by their stove. Lennie was head over heels for mice ever since the beginning of the novel when he had a dead mouse in his pocket. Unfortunatley his dream won’t be carried out. Truthfully, it wouldn’t have anyway with Curley as furious as he was. Curley would’ve straight up shot him and Lennie would’ve sadly witnessed it or even suffered more by Curley shooting him multiple times. Atleast George made him happy amd peaceful by telling him he can tend the rabbits and about the dream of the farm in detail. It meant alot to George that Lennie didn’t die horribly so thats why he tried to distract him by making him happy and was not at all expecting

A reader finds many examples of loyalty and obedience impacting eternity in the choices of Wormwood’s patient and Lennie.