Of Mice and Men

Body:

Lennie is a large, churlish migrant worker. Because of his mental disability, Lennie completely relies on George, his traveling partner and friend, for security and direction. George is smaller than Lennie but looks after him and cares about him. Candy is the old “ranch hand” who only has one hand and worries that he won’t be on the ranch for much longer. Slim is a highly skilled worker on the ranch who seems to be almost at peace with himself, people on the ranch look up to him. Curley is the Boss’s son and is mean spirited.

George In the end of Of Mice and Men there are three choices the protagonist, George, must decide on. He must run away with Lennie, not do anything, and let the others kill Lennie, or kill Lennie himself. His final decision reflects his personality and his respect for his friends. As George's character develops throughout the story he realizes the outcome before it even happens. George's solution to Lennie's mistake becomes his only reasonable choice. George realizes the solution after predicting consequences of each potential option. George's first option was to tell Lennie to run away after meeting in the brush. If George were to choose this option, both Lennie and George would have been shot. It would have looked like they planned the killing of Curley's wife together. There were no ties between Curley and anyone on the ranch, so nothing would have stopped Curley from putting a bullet in both of their heads. George obviously didn't want to die, so running away would be a bad choice. Secondly, George could have stayed at the ranch with Candy and done nothing for Lennie. He knew Lennie was going to be hunted and killed. He knew it from the moment he saw Curley's wife lying dead in the barn. It was clear to George that there was no way out for Lennie. In addition, George knew that he could not live with himself if he let the man he was responsible for be killed by Curley.

Therefore, opting to do nothing for Lennie...