Of Mice And Men Friendship Essay Example

What makes somebody truly friends with another.  In the Book Of Mice and Men the first characters the reader encounters are two farmhands George and Lennie.  The first part of their personalities the reader sees is that Lennie is in many ways a child inside the body of a man, and that George cares for and protects Lennie.  George and Lennie in the beginning of the book are traveling between jobs after being fired from the last ranch because of Lennie’s unknowingness of how his actions would be seen.  Their friendship is the most valuable part of their lives and is a core part of the plot.  Lennie is a large man that is very clumsy but loves to touch soft things.  George is a dark skinned worker with sharp features and a defined face. George and Lennie leave the ranch they were working at due to Lennie touching a girls dress and being accused of rape.  Once they reach the new ranch and start working they meet a group of characters such as Candy, Slim, curley, and carlson.  Curley is newly wed and obsessive of his wife who is very flirtatious with the two. George knows that Curley is a very protective and jealous person towards his wife and warns Lennie to avoid doing anything that would anger Curly. The overall question that needs to be answered in this essay is a question of whether or not George killing Lennie was right;The answer is yes, Lennie would have not had the ability to comprehend why they were so angry at him and by letting him die while talking to his friend was an act of mercy by George.  

Lennie has the mindset of a child who attempts to avoid the consequences of his actions.  A habit Lennie has is finding things that are soft and touching them, this could be mice, clothes, hair, ect.  Lennie and George during their travel to the new ranch he finds a mouse which he killed due to it biting him while he was playing with it; Once Lennie killed the mouse he still wanted to play with it so he hid it because he knew that if Gorge found out about what he had done he would want Lennie to get rid of it. “”Gi’me that mouse!”... “what mouse, George”” (page 8-9) John Steinbeck.  It shows how Lennie hides and does not understand why George has to get rid of the dead mouse. As George and Lennie start to prepare to sleep for the night, George is repeating a story that Lennie loves when Lennie  interrupts ““ But not us! An’ why? Be-cause … because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, that's why.” “Go on now, George!” “you got it by heart.” (page 14) John Steinbeck. The passage above is an example of how Lennie gravitated towards repeating the same story over and over until he effectively memorized the story of what George and Lennie are going to do once they earn enough money to  buy a small farm and own some animals which include rabbits which Lennie is extremely excited for.  Throughout the book you can see how Lennie is extremely childlike and does not understand virtually everything about the world around him and does not understand concepts like death. 

Lennie does not have a concept of the idea of death and what it means for others or for himself.  While George was away with the rest of the workers Lennie is inside of the barn Curley's wife talks with George about life George relates and talks about how he likes to touch soft things, Curlys wife then lets him stroke her hair. ““Let go,” she cried. “You let go!”... Lennies other hand closed over her mouth and nose. “Please don’t,” he begged. “Oh Please don’t do that. George’ll be mad.” … “don’t you go yellin’,” he said, and shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still for Lennie had broken her neck. … “ but George’ll be mad if you yell.” (page 91) John steinbeck. This moment in the book is a great example of how Lennie does not have an idea of what death is but is instead extremely single minded on how Goerge would react to Curley's wife yelling.   After Lennie was given a puppy by slim, while it was playing with Lennie, Lennie hit the puppy and killed it “ Lennie sat in the hay and looked at a little dead puppy that lay in front of him … “Now  maybe George ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits,” (page 85) John Steinbeck.  We can see how Lennie views the idea of the death of the puppy and how George would be mad at him and would not let him have rabbits anymore; this idea shows how warped his own belief of death is and how he does not have a concept of why killing something is bad by itself but only knows that it will get George mad. This shows that Lennie does not have a sense of something that is important as death. Instead of understanding good from bad Lennie just knows that George will get mad at certain things and he may not allow for him to have rabbits. 

From an overall perspective Lennie has no real idea of  morality besides what George tells him what is right and wrong.  It shows how Lennie relies on George to dictate what Lennie should do with his life.  While Lennie is remembering the ranch and smiling, Curly takes this as an attack on his character and attacks Lennie. “George,” he cried. “Make ‘um let me alone, George.”... “Get ‘im, Lennie!”... “I said get him.”… “Leggo of him, Lennie. Let go.”... George shouted over and over, “Leggo his hand,” (page 63-64) John Steinbeck. Even in situations where Lennie is being attacked he still calls and asks George to resolve the issue for him, and once Lennie follows Georges instructions to fight back he needs George to yell at him to get him to let go of Curley's hand. When George and Lennie came from the weed ranch once they reached their new ranch.  “George Milton.” “and what’s yours?” George said, “His name’s  Lennie Small.”... “Where you boys been working?” “Up around Weed,” said George. “You, too?” to Lennie. “Yeah, him too,”” (page 21) John Steinbeck.  This passage highlights how even in basic conversation Lennie does not really speak in situations where they need to have somebody assume that Lennie is his age.  In this method George protects and helps Lennie.  It allows the reader to see how they have a very important friendship between the two of them.  This friendship allows the two of them to trust the other.

The discussion about if George killing Lennie at the end Of Mice and Men was good or bad, the stance that it was right for George to kill Lennie.  During the final chapter the main underlying idea that Lennie has is because  he killed Curley's wife George is going to be mad at him.  If George would’ve let the others kill Lennie, Lennie would’ve died just knowing that he had failed George and both created trouble for him but also made George angry.  Although By having George Kill Lennie George let Lennie have a peaceful end to his life by letting him imagine that the farm they were going to have together by having.  The final part of what made Georges choose the proper one was giving Lennie reassurance that George was not mad with Lennie and instead loved him and was looking forward to being there far.  

George killing Lennie in the final pages of Of Mice and Men was the morally superior choice that George could’ve made.  Through reading the book the reader sees how Lennie as a character is relise on George to dictate his life and morals. Lennie does not have a concept of death outside of the fact that death makes George mad at him.  Lennie tries to avoid taking responsibility for his actions when they are harmful.  All of these ideas work together to develop the answer to the question of was it right for Goerge to kill Lennie.  In Of Mice and Men George and Lennie have a friendship were they both care deeply for each other and in the situation of George the best answer is to kill your friend because he will suffer less.