Of Mice and Men takes place on a ranch by the Salinas River on the coast of California during the Great Depression. Lennie Small and George Milton are two migrant workers who travel from job to job together. They have been best friends since they were young, and their traveling together makes them stick out from the crowd of other migrant workers. When George and Lennie arrive at the ranch for their new job, they meet the boss; his son, Curley; Curley’s wife; and Carlson, Slim, and Candy, the other workers on the ranch. Lennie has a very simple, childlike mind, which often gets him into trouble. George ultimately kills Lennie to spare him from the wrath of Curley and his crew. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, George was justified to kill Lennie. One reason why George was justified to kill Lennie is because he was a threat to society. Lennie’s wrongdoings have only escalated over the years; George had no way of knowing what Lennie could do next. Lennie started off as a child with mice given to him to by his Aunt Clara. “I remember a lady used to give ‘em to me--ever’ one she get...I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead--because they was so little” (Steinbeck 10) Lennie’s aunt used to give him mice to pet when he was a child, but he always ended up killing them. Lennie and George discuss this as they’re sitting in the clearing and George discovers that Lennie has another dead mouse he is petting in his