A good friend is someone who is concerned for your welfare, who includes you in their life, and will be there for you in whatever situation. By these standards, I believe that George has been a good friend to Lennie in the novella Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck. We see that on numerous occasions George does all these things for Lennie. A bad friend would not care about Lennie enough to go through all George does for Lennie. Bad friends don’t care about what happens to you and George cares about what happens to Lennie. In this novella, George is a caretaker to Lennie. Meaning that he looks after Lennie. For example, George tells Lennie to get rid of a dead mouse because he is concerned the mouse is unhealthy (Steinbeck 6). Lennie may have seen …show more content…
Throughout the book George calls Lennie a “crazy bastard”. Although, George uses foul language toward Lennie, his actions show his compassion and caring. George even contradicts some of his own put-downs towards Lennie as seen on when he compliments Lennie’s work ethic, saying, “he is a hell of a good worker and strong as a bull” (pg 22). Another argument that George is a bad friend to Lennie is the fact that George shot Lennie. It is true that George shot Lennie, but what some do not understand is why this occurred. George and Lennie had already run from one place because of Lennie’s actions, and now they had to be on the run again. The question arose that a life of running from bad things was not a life at all. Also, George knew that if the ranchers were to catch Lennie, they would kill him as revenge for killing Curley's wife. At the very least, George would be thrown into jail and he due to his mental disability, he would not even comprehend the reason for his incarceration. George’s compassion for Lennie made him believe that there was no other choice but to shoot Lennie himself preventing Lennie from suffering the at the hands of the