The American Dream is the hope of achieving independence. Yet, for most people during the Great Depression, a dream is all it is. Of Mice and Men follows two men, George and Lennie, whose dream is to own their farm one day. To work towards this, they manage to find work in a field when Lennie makes a mistake that compels the others to hunt him down and kill him. Once George finds Lennie, he is forced to make the difficult choice to kill Lennie himself. At the end of John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, George’s decision was wrong and they should have tried to run away instead, especially since he had no good reason to kill Lennie and nothing good came out of it. Comparing the consequences of Lennie’s death with the missed opportunity …show more content…
When prompted about their dream, Lennie responds “Le’s do it now” (Steinbeck 106), demonstrating that he still wanted to live and work to achieve their dream of having their own piece of land. Even though Lennie was the one going through the experiences, George killed him while ignoring that Lennie wanted to stay alive. Even if Lennie does not fully grasp his situation, he deserves the final say since he was the one experiencing the pain. It seems that George wanted to end Lennie’s suffering so he could also stop suffering alongside him when that pain was not his to act upon. While death stopped Lennie’s pain, it did nothing to fix his problem. If George had given Lennie more of a chance, then he could have grown as a person and learned to work around his strengths. Although George was trying to be kind, his decision was for him more than Lennie. Not only is George’s choice not considering Lennie, but it also negatively impacts himself. When George and Lennie go to visit the boss after first arriving, George does most of the talking and also goes out of his way to brag about how Lennie is “a hell of a good worker” (Steinbeck 22) to make sure that they both get the job. This proves that George knows how capable and useful Lennie is, and that George does care about Lennie. Lennie always protects George if he gets into danger, and his strength is desirable for getting new jobs, which is important during the Great Depression when getting jobs is difficult. George returns the favor by looking out for Lennie and tries to keep him out of trouble. They offer each other emotional support and companionship. However, they lost all of this as a result of George’s decision which degrades Lennie’s choice while only hindering himself which confirms that they should have run
George and Lennie were lifelong friends and had varying personalities even from the start. Lennie thought about how his Aunt Clara said he should have been more like George. At the time when the story took place, the two men were travelling together, and had been for some time, working and then moving on to search for the next job they could find. They were like many other men in search for work, except it was rare for men to travel together. George felt a need to take care of Lennie because he was somewhat slow. George was an average man of the time. He was a good size, nice, but firm, and he had aspirations to be more than just a nomadic laborer. Lennie, on the other hand, had always been a little different. He was big, goofy, clumsy, but sweet. They were also both good workers. George was concerned with working and getting his money before they got into trouble and had to leave camp. Lennie was the one who normally started the trouble. He was a hard worker and lived to appease George, but he got distracted easily which angered George. George told about how they would own a house and a farm together and work for themselves. Lennie loved to hear the story and think about the possibilities, even though nobody knew if any of it was a possibility. George and Lennie's differences in part led to George's inclination to kill Lennie. Despite their dissimilarity, the two men needed each other probably more than they realized.
George and Lennie were as close as brothers, wishing to purchase a ranch and live independently. However, Lennie carried a mental disability, not knowing how to control his own strength, which caused him to do “bad things”. These bad things result in both men constantly on the run from authority. Lennie eventually makes a fatal mistake, strangling the boss’s wife, Curley. In the end, George must decide between taking Lennie’s life or letting him live. He peacefully shoots Lennie in the back of the head. George’s decision to kill Lennie was moral because it put Lennie out of misery and harm’s way.
Lennie has always been told what to do by George. George really helps him through problems that keep happening during the book. Lennie is incapable to live because he does not know his strength and George has to play the role as a living assistant for Lennie. Lennie does not mean to harm but because of his condition he essentially harms people. In the book it explains the
Does it make sense if someone decided to kill someone else because they thought it was for the best? Imagine being the person shot or the person who pulls the trigger. It may seem hard to comprehend but sure enough this is what happened in the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. In this novella, two migrant workers, Lennie and George, are always traveling together to find work during the Great Depression. Lennie is a big, strong man who has an unknown mental disorder while George is a small yet strong fellow who watches over Lennie. Since they have known each other a long time, it creates tragic but admirable ending because of the difficult choice George chooses to end Lennie’s innocent yet troubling life.
If you ask people that have read the book on what they say about the book this might be what they say that it wasn't right for George to kill Lennie. It wasn't right because George planed to kill Lennie. George wasn't the only one to kill someone or something in the story. George is only for himself. he protected Lennie, but at the end of the story he killed Lennie.
Consistently throughout the story George and Lennie were there for each other; in fact towards the very beginning Lennie and George discussed how they were better off than most guys because they had each other (14). When George killed Lennie a part of him died too, George knew murdering Lennie would hurt him mentally and emotionally. However he did it because he wanted what was best for his friend no matter the cost. His actions were altruistic and that made his decision the more favorable one. Another instance when George was selfless was when he gave up his dream. Throughout the story George and Lennie dreamed of and worked towards owning their own piece of land together. However, after discovering Curley’s wife dead, George returned to reality and informed Candy that they would, “never do her” (94). After losing his friend George understood the impossibility of achieving the American Dream. Beforehand George knew he would not want to live out his dream without Lennie, so by protecting Lennie and giving up on his own dream he put Lennie above himself. Conversely, someone may believe that George's actions were selfish and that he benefits himself by killing Lennie. After George comes after Lennie, the dim-witted man asks if George was going to yell at him. Reluctantly George told him “If I was alone, I could live so easy,” (103). Although George said
First, when Lennie sticks his head in the scummy water from the stream in the beginning of the book it shows his inability to think things through before he carries through with them. Another example includes when he grabbed the woman’s dress in Weed. He did not think it through when a normal fully mentally capable person would be able to think that grabbing a strange woman’s dress would not be appropriate. Similarly, he almost duplicates the situation except this time instead of finally letting go of the dress he accidentally killed Curley’s wife resulting in a worse outcome than the situation in Weed. Lennie is unable to think for himself in a safe and well opinionated manner, therefore, he needs someone like George to take care of him and prevent him from bad situations. However, the worse part about Lennie’s neverending trilogy of mistakes is that he does not learn from them. He makes the same mistake of killing multiple mice because he pets them too hard and never learns to be more gentle. George states in the novel ,”He’s awright. Just ain’t bright. But he can do anything you tell him.” (Steinbeck 22) This statement shows that though George is telling the boss how well he can work, he is also expressing how he doesn’t make decisions for himself and that he needs George to take care of him. George also says,” Yeah, you forgot. You always forget, an’ I got to talk you out of it.” (Steinbeck 23) This statement also portrays some of the reason he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. Lennie has a very difficult time remembering anything other than instructions that George gives him. George could not have just let Lennie go because he would not be able to make good decisions, nor could he take care of himself on his own, therefore George made the right decision to end Lennie’s
What truly led up to this, and how would the story have gone differently if George had not killed Lennie? As aforementioned, they lived in the Great Depression, a time where achieving the American Dream was almost impossible to do, especially with all the farms being lost in Oklahoma. Most of the character's perspective of Lennie was that he was most simply a passive aggressive retard. Later in the novel the reader notices that he is incredibly strong which serves to positive and negative effects in the story.
Everyone has a dream they hope to achieve, but dreams are not always possible to attain. In John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, two ranch hands, George and Lennie, find work in Salinas Valley. Lennie, constantly getting into trouble, inadvertently causes the two of them to be run out of town and thus have to find new work regularly. George and Lennie's search for work in the hope of accomplishing their dream of a small farm of their own displays how futile realizing dreams can be.
One of the defining components of humanity is that humans are able to develop close relationships with one another, unlike any other species. Although sometimes diversity limits who we befriend, despite everything friendship is one of the most powerful bonds. People will go to great lengths to protect their friends. Similarly in the friendship of Lennie and George in which they have to surpass many obstacles to protect one another. In the novella Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses the characters of Lennie, who is strong and faces many predicaments with his mental health and George who is intelligent and sympathetic. These two individuals demonstrate that friendship has no boundaries, it is clear that Lennie has a disability making his relationship
The American Dream is an impractical feat to seize. In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, two best friends discover the hardships of the Great Depression in Salinas Valley, California. George is a short, intelligent, hard worker. The foil to George’s character is his best friend, Lennie, who is tall, unintelligent, and mentally challenged. Lennie is holding George back from achieving the American Dream. As the novella continues, different views of individual’s dreams are revealed. Steinbeck uses a variety of themes throughout the novella but they all relate to the main theme; that the American Dream is unachievable.
Due to Lennie’s many involuntary crimes, George is nearly forced to shoot Lennie. If George had not done this, not only would Lennie be severely tortured, George would also never have a normal life. So, it is obvious that Lennie is destroyed due to his death, but George is destroyed emotionally. He knew Lennie did not deserve to die, he knew Lennie did not do what he did on purpose. “Lennie never done it in meaness. All the time he done bad things, but he never done one of ‘em mean” (Steinbeck 95) . George no longer had a companion, someone to rely on, or family. He was truly lost, just another one of the guys on the ranch. “Nearly every character struggles with some type of loneliness or feelings of separation” (60) . This quote describes how George was left in life; alone, and without Lennie. However, another quote follows this event, leaving some optimism for George. “George is left alone after Lennie dies, but there is still hope when he leaves with Slim” (Hinds) .
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck shows American dream as an unreachable goal for the characters. Of Mice and Men is a novel based on two childhood friends, Lennie and George, who travel together in search of work. Lennie, the gentle giant, has a mental disability and an obsession of petting soft objects. One day, while stroking a girl’s hair, Lennie accidently kills her. And eventually by the end of the novel, George is forced to shoot Lennie. Steinbeck shows American Dream as an unreachable goal because of a character’s standing in the society, their dreams to be unreal and their dependency on other characters.
George understands that he can’t hide Lennie from the world forever and that the natural order of things is that the strong pick off the weak, and he will eventually have to let Lennie go. This motivates him to seize reality, meaning he had to kill Lennie, which itself was a sign of tremendous growth in himself. Killing Lennie had many effects on George; one of them being that he became one of the men he’d tell Lennie stories about. George believed that he and Lennie were not like the other migrant workers – travelling alone and spending all their earning on a whim. When George would te...
Even though the book has its rough spots, Steinbeck portrays the true bond of friendship that even people as close as siblings have. Throughout the story, George and Lennie stand up for each other, understand one another, and George always knows what is best for Lennie. George did not want to kill Lennie, but at the same time, he did not want him to have to suffer the horrible consequences; he knew that Lennie’s death would be beneficial to Lennie in the future. Furthermore, George knew what was best for Lennie and decided to kill him for his own good.