Killing In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In Of Mice And Men, George and Lennie were very close due to the fact that George looks after Lennie. They form almost a parent and child bond. Lennie does not know his own strength and continuously kills small animals that he wants to care for and pet. Lennie not knowing his own strength is developed further when Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s Wife. Lennie was stroking Curley’s Wife’s hair to the point that she became alarmed and panicked and when she did so, Lennie broke her neck by shaking her too hard, he wanted her to stop yelling. He did not mean to kill her and knew he did a horrible thing that would make George mad at him. George had to think about Lennie’s consequences of this, Curley wanted to lynch Lennie but George did not

Q: “’God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble… An’ whatta I got,’ George went on furiously. ‘I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get... You crazy son-of-a-bitch… I wisht I could put you in a cage with about a million mice an’ let you have fun.’” (Steinbeck 10).

People today with mental disabilities are often criticized for not being “up to par” with everyone else in the world. This is true especially in the 1920’s, in which the novel Of Mice and Men takes place. Take Lennie Small for example, a large and hefty man, who has a mental disability. He, as a character, is blamed for the heinous act of murdering the antagonist’s wife, whose name is never revealed. It is true that Lennie does fracture her neck, but he does so without knowing. For this reason, along with many others, Lennie is not to blame in any case involving his acts of violence in this novel, because of various, indisputable reasons. These include the red dress incident in Weed, crushing Curley’s hand, and the aforementioned murder of Curley’s wife, all of which prove Lennie’s innocence.

Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, takes place during the time of The Great Depression; an era extremely difficult for women. The novella contains many iconic characters that serve as a metaphor to our societal standards. Curley’s wife is introduced just like any other; however, the emphasis on her feminine features are metaphoric to where women stand in society. In order to prove that society makes it impossible for certain people to attain The American Dream, Steinbeck objectifies, sexualizes, and kills Curley’s wife to show that women cannot reach The American Dream.

Within the novel it states, “Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it” (Steinbeck 15). This quote shows that Lennie is causing distraught to George, leaving him to potentially ruin their future. Also, George took in Lennie when Lennie’s Aunt left him to George, so George trusted Lennie to not cause trouble to his passion. Something distinct to an individual, a personality trait, is shown in Lennie as his behavior results in him making unwilling choices towards others. George shooting Lennie in the back of the head was a good choice, as he was causing to much harm to George, as George has to watch over him. Finally, Lennie’s death occurred as he does to much to the town and Curley, and putting Lennie out of his misery was a good choice.

Running away from a crime is never acceptable; Lennie ran away after committing the crime of killing Curley’s wife. A book called “Of Mice and Men,” written by John Steinbeck is about a long adventure with Lennie and George trying to fulfill their American dream. Their American dream was to own a farm, but it did not turn out the way they expected. George ends up shooting Lennie for the crime he had committed. George did make the right decision for killing Lennie because he is always ruining their chance to fulfill their American dream, causing trouble, and being harmful to the society.

Carlson wanted Candy’s dog to be put down because of the stench and how the dog was in no position to be any use. “The way I’d shoot him, he wouldn’t feel nothing. I’d put the gun right there.” He pointed with his toe. “Right back of the head. He wouldn’t even quiver” Carlson stated (Chapter 3 pg. 45). This smaller act of violence will later play a part in the decision that leads to George’s shocking action. Carlson promises Candy that his dog won’t suffer. In the conclusion Of Mice and Men George will hope that the fact that he is killing Lennie himself won’t cause Lennie any pain. George and Lennie fled from violence for awhile until it led them on the same

After reading “Of Mice and Men,” a novella by John Steinbeck, a few essential connections can be developed from details of the setting. These connections can be found in “Paradise Lost,” a poem by Steinbeck that describes the Adam and Eve and their place in the Garden of Eden. One of the three connections that Steinbeck included in “Of Mice and Men” is the connection of temptation, a form of trickery that the serpent uses to convince Eve to eat the forbidden apple. In “Of Mice and Men,” Steinbeck includes the form of temptation of wanting to do something because of a certain reason, that has a negative effect afterwards.According to Steinbeck, “ ‘Oh! That’s nice,’ and he stroked harder … She jerked sideways, and Lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on...And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck…For a second he was bewildered. And then he whispered in fright, ‘I done a bad thing’” (Steinbeck 91).Furthermore, Lennie’s sin was a result from temptation which came from Curley’s wife. In Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife acted as a “serpent” who tempted Lennie to make bad decisions. The temptation worked as Lennie had killed Curley’s wife. In result, he was killed from the negative effect that came afterwards since Curley was

After Lennie kills Curley 's wife he is fated to be punished for his actions. Curley wants revenge, decreasing the chances that Lennie will be spared and sentenced to jail time. Due to Curley’s tendency to act violently, Curley would brutally murder Lennie to avenge the death of his wife. Lennies options aren’t good “Curley’s gonna shoot ‘im… [or] they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good” (97). By shooting Lennie, George tries to spare him the pain of rotting away in a jail cell or the agony of Curley attacking him. Additionally, George doesn’t want Lennie to be scared, he wants Lennie to be happy before he died. George felt that it was better that he was the one to do it. Similarly, when Candy lets Carlson shoot his dog he immediately regrets it, “[he] oughta shot that dog [himself]... [he] shouldn’t outta of let no stranger shoot [his] dog” (61). Lennie never intends to hurt anyone and does not deserve to be ruthlessly killed by Curly, an unfamiliar face, who intends to make Lennie suffer. Even after fighting Curley, Lennie “didn’t want to hurt him” (64). George showed mercy to Lennie when he shot him because he knew the alternate outcomes and killed Lennie as painless as

While working in Weed, Lennie gets in trouble because he wants to feel a girl’s red dress. The scared girl screams and the confused and panicked Lennie does not know any better and holds on until George is able to knock enough sense into him to let go. After this event Lennie forgets what previously transpired and where he and George are going. Forgetfulness becomes another of Lennie’s known mental deficits. The next horrible act Lennie commits is caused by his fantasies of rabbits which lead to a fight between him and Curley that ends with Curley’s hand being completely crushed by Lennie’s out of control strength. Lennie cries “I didn’t wanta hurt him” (Steinbeck 64) and George says “Lennie was jus’ scairt...he didn’t know what to do” (Steinbeck 65). This proves that Lennie does not mean to harm people but due to his challenged mind and physical power it is

Firstly, Curley was going to shoot lennie in his stomach. During the story Lennie had been already a target of Curley, he got into one fight with Curley. As Lennie was talking to Curley 's wife she let let him pet her hair. Curley 's wife started to freak out, she ended up killing her. “... and then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck”(Steinbeck 91). Lennie is a tall person, which means Curley already doesn 't like him. Killing his wife gave him a legitimate to kill Lennie, this also shows Lennie doesn 't know his strength making him very dangerous. Curley doesn 't care about his wife he just wants to butcher Lennie. Candy brought everyone to the barn, to show them Curley’s lifeless wife. Curley stood silent for a second then came to

What is right and what must be done are two different concepts. Often times, life requires people to do what must be done in order to save themselves, or others, from negative consequences. The characters in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men illustrate how people implement remorseful decisions with astute intentions to help ease the consequences for those they care about.

What would be the feelings of one who had to shoot one close to them? Would it be remorse or guilt? How about the thoughts of justified killings; is there such a thing? Two people named George and Lennie are put in a situation like this. It involves a death, two actually. Lennie killed, the farm owners son, Curley’s wife by accident. The whole situation causes George to make a life changing decision; to kill Lennie or not kill him. He makes the choice of killing him. Many people believe George was justified in killing someone very close to him, his best friend, Lennie because he would have had a slow, painful death if he had not. Others believe he was not justified in killing him. Just because he was George’s best friend did not give him any reason to shoot him. Lennie is a person that is childish, a little slow, and irresponsible adult. George is his caretaker that is responsible, caring, and a wiry person.

Many behaviors of Lennie lead to the downfall of George and Lennie’s dream because what happened in Weed, where Lennie scared a girl so like an animal he could not control his impulse to hold on to her dress. This foreshadows that with his uncontrollable strength he could hurt another person impulsively. Another foreshadow is when Candy is forced to decide to let Carlson kill his dog. He chose to let Carlson kill his dog because he had no other choice when he was pressured by Slim and Carlson. His decision leads to another unfortunate event of another person making the life or death choice for someone else. George says that Lennie’s Aunt Clara gave Lennie a lot of mice to pet, since Lennie like to pet soft thing, but ends up killing them because he pets them to hard. This foreshadows that Lennie will be killing things other than mice.

The closing chapter is as important as the opening chapter since the foreshadowing is answered, it defines the fate of the characters, the climax and resolution. There are different ways to close your chapter which are with an explicit ending, implicit ending, twist ending, tie-back ending, unresolved ending, long view ending. The author tries to make an emotional impact on the audience, leaving a message throughout the end of the story. “Of mice and Men” is a story written by John Steinbeck in 1937, in this novella Steinbeck create an emotional impact to his readers by executing a tragic tie back ending for his story; furthermore Steinbeck portrays several themes in his closing chapter such as the meaning of mercy killing, the symbolization