Lennie's Decisions In Of Mice And Men, By John Steinbeck

650 Words3 Pages

In the historical fiction novella, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, George’s decision to kill Lennie at the end of the novel was justified. Lennie Smalls is always with his best friend George. He is incapable of doing many things because he is mentally disabled. George normally makes decisions for him and in this case, it’s about Lennie suffering and staying alive, or ending his life peacefully. Curley is a character that played a big role. Lennie killed Curley’s wife (not on purpose) and got into a fight with him. Curley is ready to shoot him and torture him, except George has the choice to shoot him painlessly first. Some people may say that Lennie should have had a say in this situation and that Lennie didn’t do anything on purpose, he …show more content…

He would end up getting tortured by Curley and George doesn’t want to see his best friend like that. George made the right decision to kill him. Even though it was probably hard for him, he did his job as a best friend. Lennie was in his “happy place” before he died. As you may know, throughout the whole novel Lennie kept talking about “tending the rabbits”. He was always so excited for that. “ Lennie smiled happily. “That’s him,” he said. “That’s the guy, an’ he’s gonna let me tend the rabbits.”’ (Page 99) George made sure that his last few seconds of his life were happy, and what better way than having Lennie picture himself in their new place, tending the …show more content…

It started off in the beginning when he wanted to feel the lady’s dress. George explains, “Dumb bastard like he is, he wants to touch ever’thing he likes.”(page 51). This says why Lennie does some of these things. He has no control and doesn’t know better. Then after that, he was too rough with the mice. When he got a puppy, we all knew something was going to happen. Lennie is just too strong and he can’t control it. So, he killed the dog which was a bigger deal than the other situations. As you can see, there is a pattern. Lennie just likes feeling soft things. The worst thing he has ever done was kill Curley’s wife. He didn’t mean to, he just wanted to feel her hair. When Lennie gets nervous, it gets even worse. Curley’s wife told him to let go and then started yelling at him. He got scared that George would hear her screaming and he would get mad at him. This caused Lennie to hold on tight and not let go. Lennie is so strong that when she tried to pull away, her neck broke and she died. There was bound to be another accident caused by Lennie, so this was the best choice for