John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men follows two migrant farmers and their experiences working towards their dream. The story takes place in the Salinas Valley during both the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, when jobs were few and far between. George and Lennie have a dream of owning land, which is inhibited by these conditions. On the farm they come to work on, they meet the sultry wife of the Curly, the boss’ son. She was deprived of achieving her dream or stardom, and is left constantly craving attention in any way she can get it.
Curley’s wife has many unrealized dreams. Before her death, Curley’s wife confesses her desire to become a movie star, “Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes-all them nice clothes like they wear... An’ all them nice clothes like they wear. Because this guy says I was a natural.” p.89
The death of Curley’s wife is a very shocking event which is what triggers George’s decision to shoot Lennie. She does nothing wrong and without noticing Lennie kills her; just how he killed the mouse and the puppy killed the puppy. Curley’s wife’s death is a tragedy and symbolizes Lennie’s untroubled life coming to an end. Even though Lennie is not a bad person after the death of Curley’s wife, we can no longer think of him as an innocent child-like person. George and Lennie’s life was about survival, but centred on the innocent dream of the rabbits.
The side that I am choosing is that George should have killed Lennie because Lennie can’t live by himself, he is mentally challenged, and Curley would have killed him anyway if George didn 't. Lennie is mentally challenged and he likes to talk to dead animals and other different things. He gets in trouble a lot and can 't really do anything by himself because he will always be getting in trouble if he is by himself. “Jus wanted to feel that girl’s dress-jus wanted to pet it like it was mouse(Steinbeck 11). The quote proves my reason because Lennie got both George and Lennie in trouble because he wanted to feel a girls dress. George should have killed Lennie because Lennie can 't live by himself and I believe if George didn 't kill Lennie
In the end of the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Lennie accidentally killed Curley's wife after she would not stop screaming for him to let her go, George knows that there is not any way he can get out of it. Even if they were somehow able to escape, Lennie is unable to keep himself out of trouble and therefore will never be safe. If Curley were to find Lennie he would lynch him, making his death agonizingly slow and torturous. George killed Lennie to spare him the agony that he would have had to face either at the hands of Curley or due to his inability to care for himself.
Throughout the novella, Lennie managed to severely hurt Curley, murder an innocent puppy, and finally murdering Curley' wife. Lennie simply cannot contain himself and seems to always end up getting into a tangle of mess that comprise of major consequences, in which Lennie must pay. Ultimately, it is not Curley's wife's fault for getting Lennie killed, when it is particularly based on Lennie's incompetence to withstand
We read Of Mice and Men in English class recently. The two main characters are George Milton and Lennie Small. Toward the end of the book, Lennie gets into trouble for murdering Curley’s wife; George did the proper thing and executed him. First, Lennie should have known that murder is an awful thing, even if he was mentally challenged.
One reason George should not have killed Lennie because everything that happened, was an accident. Lennie did not mean to kill Curley’s wife or the puppy. In the passage, Of mice and men, lennie says “I don’t want ta hurt you” (Steinbeck 91). This piece of evidence from the passage shows that Lennie did not mean to hurt Curley’s wife. Lennie only meant to keep her quiet , not kill her.
After Lennie kills Curley 's wife he is fated to be punished for his actions. Curley wants revenge, decreasing the chances that Lennie will be spared and sentenced to jail time. Due to Curley’s tendency to act violently, Curley would brutally murder Lennie to avenge the death of his wife. Lennies options aren’t good “Curley’s gonna shoot ‘im… [or] they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good” (97).
“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people”-Howard Zinn, if a person is innocent, there is no reason for them to die. However, if the person does something really bad, or attacks you, you have every right to kill them. Therefore, in the book, Lennie kills Curley’s wife, so George kills Lennie.(John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men) George should not be punished for killing Lennie. George realized Lennie would never get better and the dream would never come true.
Another character in Of Mice and Men who has a lower hierarchy in the ranch is Curley’s wife. Steinbeck exemplifies that she is devalued because of the fact that she is woman. Woman had less rights at the time along with coloured people, but women’s rules weren’t as restricted. “Ever’body out doin’ som’pin’. Ever’body!
Curley's wife is characterized as flirtatious. To start out with, in chapter 2, of the story Of Mice and Men, the author, John Steinbeck symbolically uses light to portray the ideal of how imposing she is, when he writes, " The rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. " Her physical appearance of "full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made- up. Her fingernails were red. " She is wearing a "red cotton house dress,” and a pair of mules decorated with "bouquets of red ostrich feathers,” portrays the type of character she is.
My opinion towards Curley’s Wife, is that she can be a little too flirty at times. I understand that she is lonely when her husband is at work and/or at the whore house, but I think that she should be able to keep it under control. To be honest I hate her. I say this because she is always trying to get people in trouble, she’s always causing trouble, and she never once does anything on her own, she’s always has to go bother the guys, like Lennie. For example in Chapter 5, when Lennie is in the barn, getting all flustered and frustrated because he had just killed the pup on accident because he was play fighting with him, Curley’s Wife came in, and started bothering him.
In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck gives one character in particular a lower hierarchy in the ranch. Steinbeck introduces Crook’s to show that the main reason he is degraded by the other ranch hands is because of the pigment of his skin. During the 1930s, blacks did not have many rights, and most were considered property. This is displayed by Crooks, especially in a quote from Curley’s wife: “Well, you keep your place then, N*gger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny,” which was said on page 80.
Lennie is indeed innocent and unknowing, while George’s violence is being shown, even though it’s him trying to be responsible. He can see what’s happening with Lennie’s behavior and is trying to protect them both. While Lennie is innocent, he is really causing a lot of harm. This particular fact about the innocent man, however, allows us to identify closely with the George and why he would kill an
