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Of mice and men george character essay
Light dark symbolism of mice and men
How did george look out for lennie
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Was George to harsh or too fast with his decision to kill Lennie? Ever since Lennie was born he has needed help “living” and it started with his aunt Clara. When his aunt Clara died Lennie needed someone to help him with his everyday life and someone that could be there and tell him what to do. Lennie starts to travel with a good family friend George. In the book “Of Mice and Men” there is many cases where Lennie just “holds on” to George. George realizes in the end of the book Lennie has done too much harm and needs to essentially go away. George then shoots Lennie in the back of the head because Lennie couldn't live on his own if he were to run away from Curly and the rest of the gang of workers coming after him. George did the right thing …show more content…
George really helps him through problems that keep happening during the book. Lennie is incapable to live because he does not know his strength and George has to play the role as a living assistant for Lennie. Lennie does not mean to harm but because of his condition he essentially harms people. In the book it explains the trouble in weed and George explains “Well he saw a girl in a red dress and a red dress and he just wanted to feel it and when he touched it the girl just starts yelling and all he can think to do is hold on” ( Steinbeck 41). The quote states or explains how Lennie can scare or harm people. Which then brings me to the next scenario in the book when a little more damage happening. “Let go Lennie” (Steinbeck 63) is what George shouted when Lennie was essentially breaking Curleys hand into little pieces. The quote resembles George having to keep Lennie from crushing Curley's hand even more. Lennie is strong but lennie can't seem to realize or make it click in his head because of Lennie's …show more content…
At the beginning of the story Lennie and his Living assistant George were walking through the woods to there new job location and George looks over and says “Well that's a dead mouse” (Steinbeck 5). Which then we start seeing that Lennie is unstable because he is walking with a dead mouse in his hand. Is this really a problem though? Lennie states that his aunt Clara use to always give him a mouse and maybe he isn't crazy but maybe he is missing his aunt Clara and the mouse is a symbol of love that him and his aunt Clara once had. We also notice that Lennie is always traveling or right next to George. Lennie isn't “living” because “If you need assisted living 24/7 you are not living” (we need to talk about euthanasia). Without George Lennie would just cause more and more harm to his surroundings and would be unable to live and operate without becoming a danger to
As George becomes aware of the situation he begins to ponder what will happen if Lennie gets away. George understands that Lennie would not be capable of providing for himself out in the wild. As George contemplates allowing Lennie to be free of all the men, he “[is] a long time in answering” (94). George is one of the few men who understands Lennie’s mental limitations, he knows Lennie would not remember how to survive and “the poor bastard’d starve” (94). He
Lennie's stupidity and carelessness constantly causes him to unintentionally harm people and animals. When he gets into sticky situations, George is there to help him get out of them. Ever since Lennie's Aunt Clara died, George has felt that he has a sense of duty
George felt though an extremely difficult choice, killing Lennie himself was the right decision. Curley was gonna get his revenge and George did not want that because he did not want Lennie to die painfully. “‘I’ll kill the big son-of-a-bitch myself. I’ll shoot him in the guts.’”(Steinbeck 96). When Lennie killed Curley’s wife, Curley wanted to give him the most painful death. Curley wanted to shoot Lennie in the stomach which wouldn’t kill you at first, Instead you would bleed out slowly and painfully. George didn’t want Lennie to suffer so he knew he had to get to Lennie before Curley did and kill Lennie the fastest and least painful death he could which he did. Lennie would be arrested and thrown in jail for
Lennie is broken and incomplete in many ways. He has a mental disability which differentiates him from the others. He depends on George for everything and cannot do things on his own even though he is a grown man.
George kills Lennie because he did not want to witness Lennie being hurt or killed carelessly, run off by in his own and not being able to take care for himself, and Lennie’s mental disorder will never change how Lennie reacts to certain situations. Many believe taking the life of another without consent is unacceptable but in certain situations like George’s, he has to decide due to Lennie’s mental disorder that was leading him into unpleasant situations. George is an admirable character who choose to protect and do justice to his distressed friend,
“Well, you ain't pettin’ no mice while you walk with me” (Steinbeck 6). Lennie kills mice just by petting them. Lennie doesn't understand how strong he is and how easily he can kill things. It would benefit others if Lennie was not around. They could always find another strong man to work. Sadly, Lennie is just hopeless.
Lennie’s illness was seen as common and nothing to take concern over, which pertains to the vague yet soft sympathy from George whom “babysits” Lennie. George was an older brother to Lennie in a sense, helping him to get through life without any mishaps. However for George, Lennie’s illness determined their income and job status. In several incidences, Lennie overreacted in certain situations causing them to lose or leave their job spontaneously. At different points in the book, George became frustrated with Lennie: “You can't keep a job and you lose me ever' job I get. Jus' keep me shovin' all over the country all the time. An' that ain't the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out” (Steinbeck 12). This showed the overall frustration yet compassion towards Lennie, however extreme concern. According to Lennie, when he killed the puppy he said: “Why do you got to get killed, you ain’t as little as mice I didn’t bounce you hard” (Steinbeck 85). This really brought out the fact that Lennie’s illness was not to be tempered with, as he really couldn’t ever contemplate the harsh, unintentional things he’s done. When George and Lennie arrive at their new job, tension rises in the book and the author brings out that possible aspect of Lennie unintentionally doing something wrong which in turn would cause them to lose their job--or
In conclusion, George killing Lennie was a murder because of lack of consent and Lennie was not suffering physically. In this society, people are scared of the unknown, and that is how they lived. No one realized what they were doing was wrong. But Lennie was just like everyone else, only different because of a small, mental setback. The characters did not seem to realize that Lennie believed in a future ahead of him, and that he had hopes and dreams just like them. Life is incredibly short, and no one should deserve
One of the reasons why George should have killed Lennie is to keep him out of an institution. It is clearly not on the bright side for Lennie to be put in an institution. This is backed by Slim saying “…An’ s’pose they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good, George.”(pg. 97) Lennie would obviously be miserable without George anyway, his only kind friend. Without George, Lennie wouldn’t know a lot of things he does now, or what to do in situations. Lennie has one of the rare mentalities that always needs someone by their side. These are all good reasons that it would be a good thing for George to put Lennie away rather than in an institution.
Lennie himself had problems such as mental illness which he suffered from causing him to do bad deeds. First in the beginning, George and Lennie was trying to escape weed because, Lennie killed a women from their. Lennie holds small and fragile things in his hand, and does not understand how weak and frail they are, which ends up hurting or killing them.”I like to put things with my fingers, sof’ things”(90). He doesn't have any understanding when he is hurting something when he squeezes it because, he is mentally challenged. The last thing that shows this is he killed Curley's wife as well around the end of the novel.
After Lennie gets into the debacle with Curley’s wife, he runs to the oasis described at the beginning of the book. George fears the men will tear Lennie apart and murder him. He also knew he would be institutionalized, or “caged” if he survived the attack. He had the moral clarity that let him see that killing Lennie was the best thing for him. When George kills Lennie, it’s a kind of mercy killing.
In chapter one, George and Lennie are introduced onto the scene and you get to know them a little bit and you get to see how they are related/ their relationship. When I read this first part, I could tell that George was pretty much Lennie’s caretaker and it was his job to find Lennie a job and make sure he ate enough and stayed a live. He kind of resented having to drag Lennie around (pg 11~12: “Well we ain’t got any!” George exploded. “Whatever we ain’t got, you want. If I was alone I could live so easy… But wadda I got? I got you. You can’t keep a job and you loose me every job I get.”), because Lennie’s a bit slow and he messes up a lot. He tries really hard to be good and listen to what George tells him to do, but in the end of every situation, Lennie forgets what George told him beforehand and sometimes it creates a little trouble (pg 45~46: “Well, he seen this girl in this red dress. Dumb like he is, he likes to touch ever’thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do. Well, this girl just squawks and squawks. I was jus’ a little bit off, and I heard all the yellin’, so I comes running, an’ by that time Lennie’s so scared all he can think to do is jus’ hold on. I socked him over the head with a fence picket to make him let go. He was so scairt he couldn’t let go of the dress. And he’s so strong, you know… Well, that girl rabbits in an’ tells the law she’s been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie. So we sit in an irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day.”). But when you look at them, you can tell that George is...
In ending of "Of Mice And Men", George kills Lennie after he killed Curley's wife. However, I can still feel sympathy towards George, and see his action as justifiable. In the beginning of the book I had sympathy towards George. The book starts with George talking to Lennie and from this you learn a lot about their relationship. After Lennie asks for ketchup, which they can't get, George gets angry at Lennie and says, “Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble" (6). This shows the reader that George has given up a lot to take care of Lennie. He has given up his job security and a lot of his happiness because he takes care of Lennie. In chapter 3, the reader finds out how George and Lennie started traveling together, and from this the reader can infer that George travels
After reading the novella I think that George is a really good friend to Lennie. The first reason that I think that he is a really good friend to lennie, because that he runs off with Lennie when Lennie gets in trouble. George have a choice of running off with Lennie and been trace by those people or he could just don’t care about Lennie and keep his job. But he choose to run off with Lennie and been trace by those people. The second reason that I think George is a good friend to Lennie is because that in the novella it shows that George care about Lennie. On the first section it shows that George tells to Lennie to get off the the green water and throw away the dead mouse that Lennie had. He did that because the mouse might get him
George wanted to be alone, away from Lennie because he could earn a lot more money without worrying about Lennie. George wants Lennie gone so he could live life without getting into so much trouble like Lennie does. When Lennie gets into trouble then they both get into trouble. George needed Lennie gone in general weather he had to kill him or