Preview

Mistake In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
639 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mistake In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men
Fending for ourselves
To learn from ones mistakes, one must take the consequences that come with the mistake made and not have someone protect us. We see this through the eyes of George and Lennie in John Steinbecks Of Men and Mice. Lennie, one of the main characters, is protected by George his best friend. In Of Mice and Men George does not give Lennie room to grow as a person, thus protecting Lennie. Humans in General should not care about the welfare of other because it does not give the person room to grow and to learn from there mistake. In Of Mice and Men Lennie, throughout the novella, “does a bad thing”. Lennie however, can not fully comprehend what bad thing he did. George keeps protecting Lennie through the whole novella, thus not
…show more content…
Throughout the novella George protects Lennie to much. His mental retardation was a problem that couldn’t be solved, however learning experience would have benefitted Lennie and helped him understand situations better, rather than George repeatedly protecting him every step of his life. He was always responsible for Lennie and that shouldn’t have been the case. Humans should fend for themselves, if everyone picks us up everytime we will never learn how to fend on our own. What George did is exactly what someone’s not suppose to do and that’s repeatly pick someone back up. We saw in Of men and mice what happens when one does that. Lennie just keep doing what he was doing because George never punished him for it. Instead George protected Lennie throughout the whole novella. For example, when George shoots Lennie in the back of the head at the end of the novella. “Look down there acrost the river, like you can almost see the place.” (103). George even brings comfort to Lennie in his final moments. Lennie never learned how to fend for himself and that was the demise of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    George made the right decision. This quote shows what would have happened if he didn’t shoot him. “George was a long time in answering. ... “I guess we gotta get ‘im an’ lock ‘im up. ... Why, the poor bastard’d starve.” ... he tried to reassure himself” (Steinbeck). If George hadn’t shot Lennie, his mental issues would have caused him to be be discriminated against in the prison. This could easily lead to him not being fed because the prison was lacking food. Even…

    • 383 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    George has Lennie's back in every situation no matter what. George only wants what's best for Lennie. If George didn't care for Lennie he probably would've been dead sooner. When they were in Weeds George helped Lennie escape from the mob that had been sent to kill him, he also took Lennie's work card so he wouldn't lose it. George killed Lennie because he was looking out for him.”I oughtta of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't oughtta of let no stranger shoot my dog”(61). Candys words came to mind to George and realized that he was the only one Lennie had. He was the only one who got frustrated with him but cared oh so much about him. Lennie had more than just a gunshot coming to him but George instead shortened his suffering by pulling the trigger…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What George did to his friend Lennie was all that he could do and George had no other choice. In the story Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, George has to kill his friend Lennie because there a mod coming after Lennie trying to kill him. George sees no other option but to kill him before the mob gets to him. Lennie has also hurt too many helpless things, he killed mice, a puppy, and now a human. Lennie has never been punished for his actions and unfortunately it had to come to this. What George did to Lennie was completely justified…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout chapter one George and Lennie discuss the incident that happened in weed, and we begin to see George lose control when he says to Lennie, “Oh, so ya forgot that too, did ya? Well, I ain’t gonna remind ya, fear ya do it again” (Steinbeck 7). When George says this it shows how much he’s concerned with something like it, or something worse happening again. By the end of the book Lennie has killed multiple mice, a puppy, and a woman, George knows Lennie will never overcome his disability which will result in him killing again. Therefore, George had to end Lennie’s life to protect himself, and other people from his destructive…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To further explain, George’s actions couldn’t have been changed due to the fact that Lennie would just do it again, Curly didn’t allow George to stay behind, jail wouldn’t be pleasant for Lennie, George doesn’t kill Lennie out of hate for what he did. To begin, Lennie would unwillingly just keep making the same mistakes over and over again. For example, Lennie touched the girl’s dress in Weed and now he killed Curley’s wife. In the book it states, “Dumb bastard like he is, he wants to touch ever’thing he likes.”(Steinbeck 41) This quotation shows that no matter how many times they run away to another job Lennie will just keep making mistakes. This also shows that he won’t learn that touching nice things…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How Is Lennie Different

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages

    George is the one who kills Lennie. Lennie did not understand that his actions have consequences and at times you have to pay for them, but what is bad for him is that because of his disability he does not know what is wrong from…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Because the world of Of Mice and Men didn’t have this luxury, Lennie was often left to his own devices, causing most, if not all, of these problems. Lennie is of course a man with the mind of a child. This gives George a companion to travel with for his life and George enjoys his company for the most part. So maybe Lennie’s innocence isn’t such a bad thing, however we can see through his actions that it definitely is. In the evil world of migrant working, Lennie’s blind innocence doesn’t belong; this is shown through George having to constantly be a adult figure for Lennie, Lennie harming others but not realizing his own actions, Lennie murdering Curly’s Wife and preventing George from buying the farm, and Lennie’s presence preventing George from achieving any of his…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One reason george was justified in the decision he made of killing Lennie was the fact that George was the one who vowed to Lennie’s Aunt Clara to take care of him and watch over him and make sure he doesn't get into trouble. This is obvious when George says “ I told his old lady I’d take care him” ( Steinbeck 22 ). Lennie could not function alone, even though he was a grown man. At one time he relied…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Steinbeck has prepared the audience for what is about to happen in chapter five in many ways such as: How Lennie is always in trouble, the death of the mouse, Candy's dog, the pup etc. The way he has used this makes the readers quite aware of what might happen admirably.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At first glance George and Lennie had a great relationship but as the story progresses, George discovers he must move on to a better life. “ ‘God a’mighty, if I [George] was alone I could live so easy. I could get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want…’ “(11). At the beginning of the story George knew what Lennie had done in their previous town Weed, but he didn’t notice all the events leading up to another mistake that was even worst than the last. Due to the fact that Lennie doesn’t know wrong from right George had to keep fixing his mistakes, which was hurting George and his dreams. It wasn’t until after Lennie killed Curley’s Wife that George realized his dreams were not going anywhere while Lennie was still around. So he knew that it was in the best interest for both of them if they went their separate ways. Although George didn’t have to kill Lennie in order for him to succeed, George felt like that was the only way he could have peace with himself and the death of Lennie. In the end George knew that Lennie needed him in order to succeed in life but Lennie was holding him back so George got…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    George does, in return receive Lennie's unconditional trust and love because of his loyalty, but he must still sacrifice much in order to take care of Lennie. An example of sacrifice on George's part is when they had to flee from a town called Weeds where they were employed because Lennie had gotten himself accused of rape when he had tried to touch a woman's dress. George understands that Lennie is mentally challenged , but unfortunately most other people within do…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lennie Sympath

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lennie was born with a disability that causes mental retardation, because of this he doesn´t always know right from wrong and acts like a kid. He shows this when he gets upset at George for taking away his dead mouse that he hid in his pocket. George tells him that he can say a word when they get to the ranch that they are going to work at, if he does then they might not be hired because of Lennie's impairment. George says to Lennie, ¨If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won´t get no job, but if he sees ya work before he hears ya talk, we're set¨ (6). This tells us that…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of the book lennie forgets where they are going, why, and what happened to his work pass george became irritated very quickly with lennie not remembering and asking so many questions. So george starts yelling at lennie he also took the mouse lennie was petting as they were walking and george proceeded to be very rude and short with lennie as they continue to walk. Also george used to pick on lennie and tell him to do dumb stuff that could get him hurt or even killed. George understands that lennie is very different but because he doesn't remember and has to ask so many questions irritates george. Lennie doesn't understand why george gets angry with him he just want to be good and stay out of…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of the story, George escaped with Lennie from Weed to prevent Lennie from getting lynched. George did absolutely nothing, he had nothing to hide from. Also George warned Lennie about Curley, he told him that he has seen people like that before and demanded Lennie to stay away from Curley (Steinbeck 29). In addition, in order to make sure Lennie got the job, George talked for him (Steinbeck 21). George is like a parent to Lennie, from the beginning we see how he told Lennie that the water he was drinking from didn’t seem potable. He told Lennie to throw the mice away, not to be mean but because it was already dead, it wasn’t fresh. Lennie acted acted like a child and George acted like a parent, he said and did stuff similar to what a parent would. He did all that because he cared for…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One reason that it was okay for George to shoot Lennie was that Lennie was mentally ill and did not know better. He did not have a high mental capacity, so he did not know when he was doing something wrong until after he had done it and he will continue to do wrong things because he just doesn't know better. I also do not think George wanted to have to take care of Lennie for the rest of his life.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays