Towards the end of the novel, Lennie is also secretly shot in the same place with the same weapon by George out of mercy so his friend doesn’t experience a cruel painful death. Both the deaths followed the paradox “cruel to be kind” as it was only to prevent the dog and Lennie more pain and hurt in the future. However, George killed his friend himself to make sure he was
Sometimes friendship means letting go: A look into George and Lennie of Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ At the end of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men George made the right decision by killing Lennie. First of all, if George did not kill Lennie, something bad would have happened to him either way. In the barn, George says to Candy, “Guess... we gotta tell the... guys. I guess we gotta get ‘im an’ lock ‘im up. We can’t let ‘im get away.
Both were shot in the back of the head. Carlson said to Candy “shoot him right in the back of the head-“ and Steinbeck writes that “he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head.”. So we know that they were killed in the same way and this is just another way that they are treated on the same level. Having said this however, Lennie was not shot like a dog. It is very unlikely that Carlson comforted the dog before its death as George did for Lennie.
Besides, George knew that Lennie would not understand the reasoning behind Curley lynching him, he could have gone crazy and killed the whole ranch staff. George knew that, so he tricked Lennie into his own comfortable death. The fact that Lennie died next to his lifelong friend, imagining an unattainable dream that George and
In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, an ambiguous question arises on whether George did the right thing by killing Lenny at the end of the story. Some people believe that he did it out of friendship, while at the same time others believe that he did it for his own personal needs. In my personal opinion, I would have to say that he killed Lenny simply out of love for his simple-minded friend. In support of my opinion, I have found many concrete facts throughout the novel that prove it is a legitimate theory. In the following paragraph I further describe my reasoning in depth.
He thinks that Candy’s dog should be shot because it is old and smelly, he persistently argues to shoot the dog, an example is when he says “Well, I can’t stand him in here” and “and he stinks to bear hell. Tell you what. I’ll shoot him for you. Then it won’t be you that does it.” He suggests that Candy could have one of Slim’s puppies instead, but he does not recognise that Candy has an emotional attachment to his dog. After he shoots the dog, he does not apologise to Candy and he even cleans his gun in full view of everyone, this shows that he is an insensitive character.
Candy came shufflin’ back into my place scratchin’ his stump and tells me things I didn’t want to here. ‘ He’s dead Crooks they killed him. He didn’t know what he was doing poor little sod and now George has gone and shot him I thought they were friends Crooks I really did and I thought George was better than that Lennie even ‘ad Carlton’s gun an’ George just took it off him like a lamb. Anyways I’d better be off’ And Candy left me in deep
I remember about the rabbits, George.” (Steinbeck 4). Rabbits are a symbol of the impossibility of dreams by showing how all Lennie wants is to take care of rabbits, but since he has a history of hurting whatever he pets, it is apparent that he would kill them too, in effect killing his dream. The rabbits also show how people who
Underwood simply figured it was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting, or escaping. He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children…” (241). Tom’s comparison to a song or mockingbird was best conveyed in the novel by the previous quote, which refers back to Atticus’s earlier quote. Atticus’s quote is best clarified by Miss Maudie, who states that mockingbirds not only have no detriment to people, that they create music for people (a benefit). Tom Robinson died a mockingbird because not only did he not
But instead of two killings there was one Bob he probly killed people. That’s how threatening he was. As you can see I killed Bob because, he was threatening and killing me and Ponyboy. I self-defensed myself that day. If I didn’t than I wouldn’t be standing here today in this courtroom.