George does not do the right thing, because how does killing a person who killed a person show that killing is wrong, in which it doesn’t. If they would have taken Lennie to jail, he probably would have been placed into a mental institute, where they would have help Lennie with his mental disorder and give him the help he actually needed. In George’s defense he didn’t want anyone to hurt Lennie as said in chapter one, “Lennie broke in. ‘But not us! An’ why? Because… because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why”(pg 14), but the killing of his “brother” is unjustifiable. This quote explains how George always looked out for Lennie and acted like an older brother to the child-like man, so it makes no sense …show more content…
It is clear that the author had to set this novel during the Depression of the 1930’s, in a real agricultural valley--the Salinas Valley-- on a ranch with itinerant workers who have very little chance of achieving any financial success. They live in a sparsely furnished, poorly lit, bunkhouse with no real privacy. While this living situation may relieve some of the loneliness of this life for some of the workers, it also ensures that most of these men who are poor and move from one farm to another, have little opportunity to save up any money to have a place of their own and achieve their American Dream. They are driven by the need for immediate gratification--visiting whorehouses for drinks, gambling, and companionship. As Crooks says in chapter four, “‘I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but ever' time a whorehouse or a blackjack game took what it takes’” (75). The need to ease the ills of their poverty and farm worker life seem to take precedence over any long term plans. They are hard working men--many of them who lost their piece of the American Dream in the Dust Bowl--who have already been beaten down and are just trying to get by, most of the time seeking immediate gratification rather than seeking out a long term plan, in their quest for hope and a bit of the American …show more content…
Poverty was one of the main factors as to why the buying of land was just a dream as sad in chapter three when discussing about money, “‘I’ll have thirty dollars more comin’, time you guys is ready to quit’” (pg. 60). Lennie’s mental disorder was the biggest cause as to what led to the destruction of the dream, since he killed Curley’s wife, there was no way of him leaving and getting land, “George shook himself. He said woodenly, ‘If I was alone I could live so easy.’ His voice was monotonous, had no emphasis. ‘I could get a job an’ not have no mess.’ He stopped” (pg. 103). This being said, George felt like he could’ve done more with his life if he hadn’t took the responsibility of taking care of Lennie at all