Actions Have Consequences in Of Mice and Men Essay Example

📌Category: Books, Of Mice and Men
📌Words: 523
📌Pages: 2
📌Published: 13 April 2022

As everyone knows, actions have consequences, many have changed over time and were very different from society's version of acceptable behavior today. Things were especially different during the end of the great depression era in the 1930s when the book Of Mice & Men takes place. This book was written by John Steinbeck in 1937 narrating the experiences of 2 fictional migrant ranch workers in California. The author of Of Mice & Men, suggests that actions have consequences through Lennie's understanding of punishment.

In my opinion, Lennie because doesn't understand punishment he doesn't really have to deal with his consequences. For example on page George is telling Slim about Lennie touching a girls dress when he says "Well, that girl rabbits in an' tells the law she been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie. So we sit in a irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day.”. To sum that up, Lennie and George were ran out of town because Lennie didn't want to let go of the girls' dress. It was Lennie's actions, yet George suffered the consequences instead of Lennie. This would have played out differently or wouldn't have happened at all if Lennie were to understand that actions have consequences. 

After a situation like what we saw happen in Weed, you would think that Lennie would be more careful to not put himself in situations like that right? Nope, in chapter 5 another problem arises but this time it's far worse. In chapter 4 Lennie was stroking Curley's wife's hair, and all of a sudden she told him to stop. Lennie didn't listen and Curley's wife started to scream, scaring Lennie and causing him to cover her mouth. Lennie, not knowing his own strength, snaps her neck and she lifelessly falls to the ground. This would have traumatized any other person but all Lennie says is “George not gonna let me tend the rabbits no more”(page 71). This shows Lennie really doesn't understand that worse actions lead to worse consequences. 

Now, Curley's wife is dead and Curley and the other guys want Lennie dead so they go looking for him. When George finds him he decides that he should be the one to take Lennie's life. In my opinion that shows George making Lennie suffer the consequence of his actions for the first time in this book. But on the flip side, this is George also suffering his own consequences. Not only does he have to take the life of his own best friend but also no he doesn't have very much hope left for his dream as he says on page __ "With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.". Basically implying it's hard to think you have a future if you don't have anyone to talk to.

As you should see by now John Steinbeck, the author of Of Mice & Men, through Lennie's understanding of punishment, suggests that actions have consequences. We have seen many examples of this so far from the simplest of misunderstandings to the biggest mistakes. Lennie doesn't understand that choices affect others because George takes responsibility for Lennie's actions. A lesson both characters learn throughout this book is that even though your choices may not always affect you, they affect others. All actions have consequences.

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