Killing Your Best Friend In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Killing your best friend seems like an undeniable sin at first glance. However, in the book Of Mice and Men two best friends named George and Lennie were faced with great adversity that challenged their friendship. Lennie who was a mentally retarded and George who was mentally stable were companions and close friends. With this being said, because of Lennie’s mental retardedness and extreme strength he did not know he had, Lennie made bad choices without really knowing what he was doing. When push came to shove, George had to make the decision to kill his best friend. This was the only way to keep Lennie from making things worse for not only himself but the people who loved him. Lennie was a lot like a child because of his mental issues. Everything he saw and liked he wanted to touch, which obviously led to problems. With that and his extreme strength, he ended up killing many things. He killed almost every animal he touched, as well as a woman that lived on the ranch he was working on. Now think, what would you do if someone killed your significant other? Probably get mad and want revenge. That is exactly how the woman’s husband, Curley reacted to

Which at first glance seems unreasonable and crazy. However, would you rather have your best friend be killed and have a slow, grueling and painful death by a stranger or kill your best friend knowing that the alternatives are worse, and it will be short and painless. George had to weigh his options but I think his decision was for the best. Earlier in the book, another character named Candy that lived on the ranch let another man kill his dog and deeply regretted it after the dog was dead. Candy said, “I ought to of shot that dog myself George. I shouldn’t ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog,” I think George would have felt the same way as Candy did if Curley had killed him (61). Lastly, I think George killed Lennie out of love rather than anger unlike Curley would