Of Mice And Men George And Lennie's Relationship Essay

From the very opening page of Mice and Men we are introduced to the very strong relationship between George and Lennie. Although, they have gone through many hardships and tribulations they have also spent many priceless moments together. Lennie constantly makes mistakes which directly have affected George. Despite these mistakes, George has stated he enjoys his company and that they have each other to rely on. George breaks his promise and kills Lennie, once Lennie has killed Curley’s wife. If this had not been done, they would have been able to live out their dreams in buying land.
Lennie could have still lived out his dreams, despite his harmful actions, if he hadn’t been killed. I understand he was mentally handicapped, yet this does not

make it right for him to be killed. If there is any doubt of him being mentally handicapped, we see this being confirmed in multiple areas of the book. For starters, when Lennie and Crooks are having a conversation, Crooks states “a guy can talk to you an’ be sure you won’t go blabbin” (70) This shows us, Lennie is not able to retain most of what he is told. On page 23, Lennie questions if he was really kicked in the head by a horse, furthermore displaying the severity of his disability.

We know that they could’ve moved off the farm, and bought their own land if Lennie had the chance to do so, because when Candy overhears their conversation, he butts in, letting them know he has money and can financially aid them, by saying “S’pose I went in with you guys.

Tha’s three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in.” (59) This very much intrigues George because he responds with “Look, if me an’ Lennie work a month an’ don’t spen’ nothing we’ll have a hundred bucks. That’d be four fifty. I bet we could swing her for that.” (60) With this being said, Lennie combined with Candy’s contribution would’ve enabled them to have enough money and make their dreams of buying land a realistic

possibility.
It appears that one of George’s biggest fears in allowing Lennie to live is that Curley will keep hunting him down and want to kill Lennie himself. They could have avoided this by fighting Curley off and continued going on with their lives. We see the impact of Lennie’s strength when Curley becomes upset and provokes him to fight. The result of this fight is shown on page 64, with telling us “We got to get him in to a doctor,” he said. “Looks to me like ever’ bone in his han’ is bust.” With Slim saying this, shows just how strong Lennie truly is, and if Curley would have attempted to keep coming at him, something of this nature could have occurred again, scaring Curley off.
Others would say that due to Lennie’s mental disability he wouldn’t have been able to make his dreams a reality, because he would’ve continued to make mistakes that would’ve disrupted daily life and cause a downward spiral.

With this being said, if George would’ve allowed Lennie to live, they could’ve made their dreams in buying a house a reality. They could have made this a reality, because they have each other to look out for one another. Despite Curley possibly wanting to hunt them down, they could have evaded him and went on with their daily lives, like George said “...We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us...” With Lennie adding “because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you.” (14) If George would have kept his word, they would’ve had each other to make it through the toughest of situations, including the one they had just gotten each other in, instead of finding the easy way out and ending it

early.
With all of this being said, I understand that Lennie may have been holding George back, and not allowing him to further succeed, yet in contrast George also makes a selfish move by killing Lennie, because he moves him out of the way and makes it where he is no longer an issue. Adding to this, George may have also done this out of love for Lennie because he didn’t want Curley to get to him, but if he would have truly meant what he said, he wouldn’t have killed Lennie and brought him along for future adventures, instead of taking the easy way out and ending it for Lennie.