Of Mice And Men Point Of No Return Essay

Of Mice and Men - The Point of No Return
The climax of a story is defined as “a decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot,” (Climax) and is often the point of no return for a character in the novel. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men follows this formula, where the point of no return for one of the main characters, Lennie, is the climax of the book. During this scene, Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife by break her neck. The point of no return in Of Mice and Men affects Lennie, George, and the overall theme of dreams and friendship.
Death and mental anguish are both thrust upon Lennie due to his own actions. In the entirety of the novel, Lennie is portrayed as unintelligent and mentally unstable.

His mental health becomes even worse after he accidentally kills Curley’s wife. Lennie is often described as being strong and is unable to control his own strength, often killing animals when he is simply trying to pet them. Due to Lennie’s action, his greatest fear begins to creep up on him, the fear of being alone. Throughout the novel, Lennie and George are described as different because they stay together, unlike other traveling workers during that time. Lennie’s fear of being alone is present after killing Curley’s wife because he believes that George won’t want him around anymore. The exact words in the novel that represent this concept are “George gonna give me hell...George gonna wish he was alone and' not have me bothering' him” (Steinbeck). Finally, Lennie’s actions lead to his own death. This is written in the novel as “The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering” (Steinbeck). Lennie killing Curley’s wife brought him mental anguish and death.
Due to Lennie’s action, numerous other characters in the novel are affected. Curley’s wife dies and Curley is left a widower. The other men working for Curley come together and seek out Lennie in order to kill him. However, the character affected most by Lennie’s action is George. George realizes that the only way to protect his friend from the angry mob of men is by killing him. Thus, in the novel, he “...raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie's head….He pulled the trigger” (Steinbeck). After killing Lennie, George is left in pain. Steinbeck wrote “George shivered and looked at the gun, and then he threw it from him, back up on the bank, near the pile of old ashes” (Steinbeck). Lennie’s act became a point of no return for other characters in the novel besides himself.
The main themes of Of Mice and Men are friendship and dreams.

Lennie’s point of no return contributes to both of these themes. Dreams are a large part of the novel because Lennie and George’s dream of owning their own rabbit farm is fueling them to keep pressing on and working through terrible conditions. However, George realizes the realism of life and acknowledges the fact that their dream will never become a reality. Lennie, on the other hand, is less realistic and believes that one day he will be able to pet rabbits on his own farm. Before George kills Lennie, he paints Lennie their dream so he can picture it before he dies. George tells Lennie “"Look acrost the river, Lennie, an' I'll tell you so you can almost see it….We gonna get a little place...we'll have maybe a pig an' chickens…”(Steinbeck) in order to bring him hope. From an outside perspective, George killing Lennie looks like a selfish act and wrongdoing. However, George kills Lennie because he knows that it is a better death for his friend than being tortured and taunted by the mob of angry men. George kills Lennie parallel to killing his own dream out of love for his friend. The main themes of dreams and friendship are supported by George’s reaction to Lennie killing Curley’s

wife.
In the novel Of Mice and Men, the point of no return affects Lennie, George and the overall theme of dreams and friendship. Lennie killing Curley’s wife sets up the entire end portion of the novel and is the climax of the entire book. After Lennie kills Curley’s wife, his life was not only changed but gone.