Deaths In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men portrays the lives of two friends, Lennie Small and George Milton. They are migrant workers living in the Great Depression. Lennie and George work very hard to achieve their aspiration of a better life, but in the end they both die. S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders depict the life of indigent Ponyboy Curtis, who learns to “stay gold” through the death of two members of his gang, Johnny Cade and Dallas (Dally) Winston and a member of the rival gang, Bob Sheldon. There are three major deaths in the books Of Mice and Men and The Outsiders. In The Outsiders, Johnny dies after killing Bob and then Johnny’s death causes Dally to commit suicide. In Of Mice and Men, Lennie kills Curley's Wife, then George kills Lennie

Hintons character Dally. George only has Lennie and Lennie is the one thing that keeps him from becoming “one of the loneliest guys in the world”. At the beginning he illustrates to Lennie their situation, “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family.” (p 13) But then at the end of the book George shoots Lennie because Lennie is a danger to everyone around him, except for George. When George shoots Lennie in the back of the head and Lennie doesn’t even quiver. Just like Carlson says, “Right back of the head. He wouldn’t even quiver.” (p 45) Even though Lennie doesn’t quiver, George does, symbolizing the death of George. “George shivered and looked at the gun, and then he threw it away from him…” (p 106). The circumstances of George's death is very much alike to Dally’s death. Dally has always been cold as ice, never letting anyone in and keeping up his walls. But he lets Johnny in and for the first time ever he has someone to love. Once Johnny starts to die Dally is devastated and tells Ponyboy, “You look out for yourself and nothing can touch you…” (p 147). Dally is expressing this to Ponyboy because he knows Johnny is going to die and that he can’t live without Johnny. “Oh, Damnit, Johnny, don’t die, please don’t die…” (p 149). Once Johnny dies, Dally dashes out and gets the police to shoot him in front of the gang, “he was dead before he even hit the ground. But I knew that was what he wanted.” (p 154) Like George, Dally died because the one person he loved died and he couldn’t live without love. But unlike Dally, George didn’t choose to die. He would have kept living with Lennie if Lennie wasn’t dangerous to those around him. Therefore the circumstances of George and Dally are very