Of Mice And Men Quotes And Analysis

Some of the hardest decisions are the most important ones. This is shown by George in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The story takes places in the 1930s during the Great Depression in the Salinas Valley in California. It is about two men who are migrant workers and are looking for a job. One of these men is a huge guy with an undeveloped mind, and the other a small guy, but smart. The names of the men are George and Lennie. For example, if George does not kill Lennie, the other men would have killed Lennie in a way that he would suffer. George wants Lennie to have a peaceful death, so he kills Lennie to spare him from Curley. Secondly, Lennie is becoming a danger to himself because of the escalating violence that is going on, and George

The things that he is hurting/killing are gradually getting bigger. George is afraid that Lennie is going to hurt himself, and George prevents this by killing him. This shows many times in the story. It first started with mice when Lennie is a child(9), then in Weed with the woman’s dress(41). In Weed, Lennie touches a woman’s soft dress, and she thinks that he is raping her, so she screams, and Lennie holds on tighter. After that is Curley’s hand(63), then Slim’s puppy(85) and lastly, murdering Curley’s wife(91). The worst part happens in the barn when Lennie is with Curley’s wife, and she lets Lennie touch her hair and suddenly “she is still, for Lennie had broken her neck” (91). We see that the things that he kills are getting larger, so what would be next? Next, Lennie could kill multiple people. If Lennie does this, the police would most likely catch him because of his childish mind. The police could execute him in numerous ways and make Lennie suffer. Also, Lennie could even hurt himself, either by getting caught by the cops or just self-inflicted injury. Since George is afraid Lennie might hurt himself in a way, he does not want him to suffer. Therefore, he kills Lennie to spare him from whatever might have happened if they

Later, he decides that he would be sent to an insane asylum and that they would treat him like an animal. This would drive Lennie crazy, and he could kill himself because of going insane. This happens after the men find Curley’s wife dead. Then George talks to Slim to see if Lennie could just go to jail, but Slim tells him otherwise. George is trying to get Slim to get the others not to kill him but instead to “Bring him in an’ they’ll lock him up” (97).Then, Slim tells George that “They lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage” (97). Since Lennie is crazy, he would not just go to jail; they would send him to an insane asylum. In the insane asylum, they would treat him like an animal. Being treated like this, he would go crazy, possibly so crazy that he would want to end his own life. George does not wish for Lennie to be treated like an animal and go crazy. If Lennie goes insane, he could get to the point where he would want to end his life. George does not wish for Lennie to die by himself or painfully, so George kills him so he won’t die slowly and