Analysis Of Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Lennie droned on and on about the farm, how he was going to have a patch of alfalfa and tend to the rabbits. All the while he was unaware of the glimmering silver Luger aimed right at the back of his head, with his best friend George, staring with a stony face, a single rock on a rocky mountain. George’s finger tightened on the trigger, and a loud bang sounded throughout the forest, echoing further and further until it was but a distant memory. The scene where this event had occurred in Of Mice and Men caused a lot of debate about whether George should’ve done this or not. “They could’ve run away, Lennie would’ve been fine in a mental hospital,” one side would argue. “George had to do it or else Curley would’ve done it in a barbaric and cruel
The only problem, Lennie actually did do that, and he almost drowned. While speaking to Slim about Lennie, George explained the story. “One day a bunch of guys was standin’ around up on the Sacramento River. I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says, ‘Jump in.’ An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him” (Steinbeck, 40). Now, if I asked you to jump in a nine-meter deep river knowing full well that you couldn’t swim, would you do it? Probably not. Lennie would have drowned had George and a few other guys not gotten to him in time. And Lennie would’ve done it again if George had asked him
So what does Lennie do? Well, he breaks Curley’s hand. That’s right. He breaks it - no - shatters it with his own hand. Curley’s hand is bleeding, a waterfall of red that is not strawberry jelly, his fingers crooked in ways they shouldn’t be, bones sticking out like recently built fence posts. Sure, Lennie had to be egged on by George to fight back, but he also had to be forced to stop by George when Lennie kept destroying Curley’s hand. What Lennie did next though, would cause a lot of tragedy, both to Curley and himself.
At the end of Of Mice and Men, despite what everyone is telling him, Lennie talks with Curley’s wife. That was a grave mistake for her, as, by the end of their talk, Curley’s wife’s neck got broken. Her neck was twisted unusually, a look of fear the last thing plastered onto her face as she lay limp in the hay, almost like a sleeping farm animal. Now Lennie’s done it. This truly shows how dangerous Lennie is. Consequently, this is the event in the book that leads to George shooting Lennie by the river where they slept the night before going to