Lennie In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Did you know that in 2011, 79 percent of murders reported to the FBI were committed by friends or loved ones? In this novel by John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, it is clear that the statistics ring true. At the end of the novel, we readers have been through a roller coaster ride with our two main characters, George and Lennie, and mentally handicapped, yet strong man. For the final loop in the roller coaster, we lose a main passenger. George makes a selfless decision for himself and Lennie, he must kill Lennie for his own sake. There are actually a lot of justifiable reasons for the slaying of his own lifelong best friend. In a lot of ways Lennie was dependant , and in that he made life hell for both of the men, in the end Lennie was doomed

George is obviously taking care of Lennie from the get go. From page one of this rivenous book, it portrays George as the leader. When the duo first enter the scene, George is leading Lennie beside a river bed, and coaching him through what he should say and do in front of the new boss. Later in the book, other characters opinions come into play with the way George takes control of Lennie. Curley’s wife cared to tell Lennie,"I tol’ you an tol’ you," she said. "I tol you, ‘Min’ George because he’s such a nice fella an’ good to you.’ But you don’t never take no care. You do bad things.”(Steinbeck). She is stating that she feels George is good to Lennie and takes care of him. Although George didn’t necessarily mind taking care of Lennie, he still always had something to say to him out of his frustration, or because of concurrent situations with the quotations."God, you're a lot of trouble," said George. "I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn't have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl."(Steinbeck). In this excerpt, George expresses to Lennie that he would be better off without him and he could finally be on his own. In conclusion to the relentless dependability that Lennie relies on George for, George in turn became very exhausted and

Honestly, George did not have a chance with Lennie in his life. With Lennie constantly needing George in everyday life, I find that it would be hard for George to live his own life without having to worry about Lennie in every way of his life. Every time George sets up something for Lennie and George’s “dream” to come true, Lennie accidentally and innocently screws it up. In the beginning of Steinbeck’s novel, the leader brings up a past incident in a town they had previously worked in, Weed. In Weed, Lennie had a mishap with a lady there who did not understand his condition. In his child like state of mind, he simply wanted to feel the softness of her dress, but she took it as he wanted to rape her? I;m not sure how that could be, but just as well, it was probably very frightening to have a large strong man grabbing onto your dress. All in all, they ended up having to flee Weed to keep themselves out of trouble. Later on, George tells Lennie that it is bound to happen again; he wishes it would not. "Oh, so ya forgot that too, did ya? Well, I ain't gonna remind ya, fear ya do it again." A light of understanding broke on Lennie's face. "They run us outa Weed," he exploded triumphantly. "Run us out, hell," said George disgustedly. "We run. They was lookin' for us, but they didn't catch us." (Steinbeck). Characters other than just George knew that Lennie was