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This essay will be about friendship and mixed dreams of two men, physically strong well but mentally retarded Lennie and pragmatic, practical George. All the time George tries to protect Lennie from the surrounding world, because he knows, that the world doesn’t understand him and can hurt him. But Lennie gets in trouble very often, which he doesn’t consider a problem. The story ends tragically. George protected Lennie all along. When he finally killed him at the end, it was his final act of protection from the cruel life. Only in the death Lennie finds happiness, his dream house with animals, his paradise, his home. But without understanding, because he will be there alone.
The topic, which was interesting for me in this story, is the very strong friendship between two men, in spite of their different characters. All the time when I was reading the novel I believed that they would be able to save the money to build a house and rent a farm... They were so reliant on each other. They helped each other... But the question is if the decision to shoot Lennie /from the point of George's view/ was a sign of weakness or courage and strength. In every case death was the only solution even though it was sad. George loved Lennie so much that he had to kill him.
We all know the story. So I will concentrate on the characters / protagonists of this story. Lennie was a very strong man but he couldn’t “work” with it. On the other side he liked everything velvet and soft. He loved animals and he loved to caress them so much that sometimes he killed them by petting. And he even caresses them when they were dead. He didn’t understand the cycle of life and death. He liked one woman as well - Curley’s wife. Because she had velvet hair, a nice dress and soft skin. He thought she also loves him. But she didn’t. She was just laughing at him. She likes to flirt with men. Lennie hurt her, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t like yelling, so he stopped her yelling...
George has a unique personality. He would maybe never find so “stupid” friend as Lennie. But he started to love him. He wanted to protect him and to help him. He used to say him what he should do and what he should not do. He took care after him as a parent. But maybe just right at the end of their story George found out that he could be happy only with Lennie. He taught him to dream and to be good. George never wanted to hurt somebody. He wanted only to live his own life.
But world is not accommodate to this kind of people. Generally people have to accommodate to the world. Lennie's destiny was almost the same as the one of Candy’s dog. The people didn’t want dog because he was old and stink. But the dog wasn’t responsible for that he was old. The same people who hated the dog started to hate Lennie. They didn’t like Lennie because he was different. They didn’t want to talk with him. They wanted to get him away. ... And so George decided to save and to protect Lennie – paradoxically – by killing him.
By Lennie's death George lost his best friend. From this “crime” George probably would be alone among the people because he is marked by the death. Maybe he would never find a friend. He would be afraid of enter new friendships. Even though that the death was the only possibility in that time and on that place how to protect Lennie from people. Maybe the happier one is Lennie because he finally found his dream farm, although without the best friend. And George stays on the earth alone without friends... So who found understanding and who found happiness? From that point the decision to kill Lennie was right or not? - BuG -
A real friend would do anything just to prevent pain and suffering from others. George did the right thing when he shot Lennie, who suffered and was frightened. Lennie died while thinking of things he loved, rabbits and his dreamed farm, and didn´t have to get hurt by the angry guys. Sometimes it seemed like George didn´t really like Lennie because he didn´t talk about anything but rabbits and George couldn´t leave him alone even for one minute. If someone read only the beginning of the book, he/she wouldn´t be very surprised that George shot Lennie in the end. Sometimes George really acted like he was much above Lennie. “Where we goin’ George?”, asked Lennie on their way to a farm to find a job. “So you forgot it awready, did you? I gotta tell you again, do I? Jesus Christ, you’re a crazy bastard!” (4) George probably acted so mean because he was just bothered by taking care of a simple-minded guy all the time. Even though it didn’t seem perfect all the time, George and Lennie were real friends. After George yelled at Lennie and told him bad things Lennie said he could leave him alone and go to hills and find a cave to live in. “No-look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ‘Cause I want you to stay with me!”, said George. (14) And we could see he really cared about Lennie. And Lennie loved George as well. George was not only a friend for him but also something like a father. He taught him what to do, how to act, what to say and Lennie had really big respect, sometimes it even seemed like he was afraid of George, e.g. after killing Curley’s wife. “I done a bad thing. I done a real bad thing! George’ll be mad!”[100] Lennie’s fear was often obvious. Everyone was a little surprised that George and Lennie traveled and looked for work together because it wasn’t very common in those times. Maybe they didn’t really realize it but they were lucky guys because of having someone by their side. “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. A guy needs somebody to be near him!”, said the loneliest character of all, a black man Crooks. “S’pose George gets killed or hurt so he can’t come back. What’ll you do then?” (79) But Lennie couldn’t even imagine such a thing. He was totally addicted to George and couldn’t even be one day without him. Friendship means the most for everyone. Just like how friendship between George and Lennie ment everything, really everything, for them. It was a terrible time during The Great Depression so it was really unique that there were two guys wandering the country together and helping each other. Some people wonder if it was right that George finally shot his best and only friend, some even think a real friend would never do something like that but in this case I think it was the best thing George could do for Lennie, at least to make him die happy.
Steinbeck,John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Bantam Books, 1965
In the book "Of Mice and Men" by John Stainbuck we face the situation when we must state our opinion. It is at the end when George shoots Lennie and he dies. The situation itself seems to be easily solved - it is wrong what George did because you shall not kill. On the other hand, many quotes and situations in the book show us that the two of them were really close friends. So was it really wrong to kill Lennie? Was there anything else George could do in that moment? Maybe first we must understand the relationship between them in order to understand George's actions.
George had been taking care of Lennie ever since Aunt Clara died and he felt responsible for him. As well as he knew that Lennie needed a protector, he also knew Lennie needed a friend. So he was both - his friend and his protector. As a protector he told him to go to their secret place if something bad happens and as a friend he promised him to come there to run away with him. "[...] You remember where we slep' last night? Down by the river?" "Yeah, I remember. Oh, sure I remember! I go there an' hide in the brush!" "Hide till I come for you. Don't let anybody see you. Hide in the brush by the river. Say that over."[pg.33-34] The quote tells us that George didn't want anything bad happen to Lennie and wanted to protect him because he was both his friend and protector.
In spite of the fact the times during The Great Depression were dark and people were mostly traveling alone, George and Lennie decided to travel together, what was rather unusual. They cared about each other although Lennie was more dependent on his friend. Sometimes it seemed like George was only using Lennie to protect himself from stronger men because he wasn't very strong. But there is following passage in the book which tells us that George was Lennie's friend not only when he needed him but also when he was needed: "Well, I can go away," said Lennie. "I'll go right off in the hills an' find a cave if you don't want me." George shook himself again. "No," he said. "I want you to stay with me here." We can see that George decided not to leave Lennie when he had hard times and to stay there with him to help him. And that's something only a real friend does.
I already showed on examples that George and Lennie were indeed friends. Why did George kill Lennie then? The question in simple to ask but hard to asnwer. George knew his friend would die anyway. If he ran off to the forest, he would starve to death. If the men caught him, they would be merciless and brutally murder him. There were two options - he could stay with Lennie and run away or kill him by himself. But what was the guarantee that Lennie won't accidentally kill someone again? It had happened before in Weed and now here - he killed Curley's wife even though it wasn't his intention. Yes, George was Lennie's friend but it came at much too high a cost. He chose the second option where he at least could assure that George will die peacefully and happy. "Tell about us now." George was quiet for a moment. "But not us." he said. "Because..." "Because I got you and---" "And I got you. We got each other, that's what, that gives a hoot in hell about us," Lennie cried in triumph. [pg. 114-115] Lennie truly believed in the friendship between them and he was devoted to George. He trusted him and maybe if he had to choose his murderer, he would choose George. Because he trusted George more than anyone, more than he trusted himself.
George killed Lennie is a fact. Why did he do that is the question. In order to get an answer we must first decide what out priorities are. If we put moral before friendship or friendship before moral. Because if we choose the second one, then killing Lennie seems like a right thing to do in that situation. There were other options George had, there were other ways he could have helped Lennie. Maybe he would have felt guilty forever but that was his sin to bare...in that moment he did what was the best for his best friend. Because friendship is complicated like that.
Steinbeck,John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Bantam Books, 1965
Of Mice and Men In Of Mice and Men, there are many different sorts of personalities and Steinbeck, by his proffessionality, forces us to belove the most simple, stupid one. There were several discussions in my okolie about making Lennie independent. And as I love the ending and Steinbeck's writing, I had a discussion with myself how George was deciding to kill Lennie and about the depth of George's and Lennie's friendship. But the end pursuaded me about my simple final opinion, that their friendship was really deep. Making Lennie independent would be very difficult thing to do. George exploited Lennie in a way that he wasn't bright- he "made" Lennie how he wanted Lennie to be like. Mabye if George and Lennie lived in different times, George could try to make Lennie independent. But during the Great depression's hard times George was forced to take care of himself and Lennie- how to survive, make some money. And he needed someone like Lennie- Lennie seems to me like a sort of happiness and "rest" for others. So, George was putting Lennie to a nice illusion to make Lennie happy. And, finally, I think that a kind of serious diagnose Lennie had needs a skilled psychologist. George did what he could do. My favourite part of the book, the last dialogue between George and Lennie shows the depth of their friendship. In whole book I couldn't see very clearly that George and Lennie were close to each other, but in the end, George showed there all his feelings to Lennie. It was their nicest, longest, deepest conversation where you could feel how close were George and Lennie to each other. The ending is Steinbecks really good piece. After George killed Lennie I was angry at him but now, after some time I see that I like George (because of the ending). It is the only place where George is shown in totally different way- sensible, kind, vulnerable. And this is one strong, emotional part from their last conversation: "But not us," "Tell about us now."[=Lennie]. George was quiet for a moment. "But not us,"he said. "Because---"[=Lennie] "Because I got you an'---"[=George] "An' I got you. We got each other, that's what, that gives a hoot in hell about us," Lennie cried in triumph.[114-115]
George's last decision is mabye influenced by Lennie saying: "Le's do it. Let's get that place now."[117] George's mind probably listened to everything, but his brain listened just to Lennie's "Le's do it, let's do it now", because he then said "Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta."[117] Seems like his "right now, I gotta" is meant as a plan to killing Lennie and "right now, we gotta" is to Lennie about their place, so we see he again puts Lennie to a nice illusion- he sees the most important to make Lennie happy in Lennie's way, cause he kills him right after he says that. And this shows us also that George helped Lennie the best he could- he was putting Lennie to illusions whole life and in the moment of death he does the same thing- what he saw as the only valuable thing Lennie could get.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Bantam books, 1965.
4 comments:
Finding home, finding happiness, finding understanding
This essay will be about friendship and mixed dreams of two men, physically strong well but mentally retarded Lennie and pragmatic, practical George. All the time George tries to protect Lennie from the surrounding world, because he knows, that the world doesn’t understand him and can hurt him. But Lennie gets in trouble very often, which he doesn’t consider a problem. The story ends tragically. George protected Lennie all along. When he finally killed him at the end, it was his final act of protection from the cruel life. Only in the death Lennie finds happiness, his dream house with animals, his paradise, his home. But without understanding, because he will be there alone.
The topic, which was interesting for me in this story, is the very strong friendship between two men, in spite of their different characters. All the time when I was reading the novel I believed that they would be able to save the money to build a house and rent a farm... They were so reliant on each other. They helped each other... But the question is if the decision to shoot Lennie /from the point of George's view/ was a sign of weakness or courage and strength. In every case death was the only solution even though it was sad. George loved Lennie so much that he had to kill him.
We all know the story. So I will concentrate on the characters / protagonists of this story. Lennie was a very strong man but he couldn’t “work” with it. On the other side he liked everything velvet and soft. He loved animals and he loved to caress them so much that sometimes he killed them by petting. And he even caresses them when they were dead. He didn’t understand the cycle of life and death. He liked one woman as well - Curley’s wife. Because she had velvet hair, a nice dress and soft skin. He thought she also loves him. But she didn’t. She was just laughing at him. She likes to flirt with men. Lennie hurt her, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t like yelling, so he stopped her yelling...
George has a unique personality. He would maybe never find so “stupid” friend as Lennie. But he started to love him. He wanted to protect him and to help him. He used to say him what he should do and what he should not do. He took care after him as a parent. But maybe just right at the end of their story George found out that he could be happy only with Lennie. He taught him to dream and to be good. George never wanted to hurt somebody. He wanted only to live his own life.
But world is not accommodate to this kind of people. Generally people have to accommodate to the world. Lennie's destiny was almost the same as the one of Candy’s dog. The people didn’t want dog because he was old and stink. But the dog wasn’t responsible for that he was old. The same people who hated the dog started to hate Lennie. They didn’t like Lennie because he was different. They didn’t want to talk with him. They wanted to get him away. ... And so George decided to save and to protect Lennie – paradoxically – by killing him.
By Lennie's death George lost his best friend. From this “crime” George probably would be alone among the people because he is marked by the death. Maybe he would never find a friend. He would be afraid of enter new friendships. Even though that the death was the only possibility in that time and on that place how to protect Lennie from people. Maybe the happier one is Lennie because he finally found his dream farm, although without the best friend. And George stays on the earth alone without friends... So who found understanding and who found happiness? From that point the decision to kill Lennie was right or not?
- BuG -
George and Lennie , the real friends
A real friend would do anything just to prevent pain and suffering from others.
George did the right thing when he shot Lennie, who suffered and was frightened.
Lennie died while thinking of things he loved, rabbits and his dreamed farm, and
didn´t have to get hurt by the angry guys.
Sometimes it seemed like George didn´t really like Lennie because he didn´t talk
about anything but rabbits and George couldn´t leave him alone even for one minute.
If someone read only the beginning of the book, he/she wouldn´t be very surprised that
George shot Lennie in the end. Sometimes George really acted like he was much above
Lennie. “Where we goin’ George?”, asked Lennie on their way to a farm to find a job.
“So you forgot it awready, did you? I gotta tell you again, do I? Jesus Christ, you’re a
crazy bastard!” (4) George probably acted so mean because he was just bothered by
taking care of a simple-minded guy all the time.
Even though it didn’t seem perfect all the time, George and Lennie were real friends.
After George yelled at Lennie and told him bad things Lennie said he could leave him
alone and go to hills and find a cave to live in. “No-look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie.
‘Cause I want you to stay with me!”, said George. (14) And we could see he really cared
about Lennie. And Lennie loved George as well. George was not only a friend for him but
also something like a father. He taught him what to do, how to act, what to say and Lennie
had really big respect, sometimes it even seemed like he was afraid of George, e.g. after
killing Curley’s wife. “I done a bad thing. I done a real bad thing! George’ll be mad!”[100]
Lennie’s fear was often obvious.
Everyone was a little surprised that George and Lennie traveled and looked for work
together because it wasn’t very common in those times. Maybe they didn’t really realize it
but they were lucky guys because of having someone by their side. “A guy goes nuts if he
ain’t got nobody. A guy needs somebody to be near him!”, said the loneliest character of all,
a black man Crooks. “S’pose George gets killed or hurt so he can’t come back. What’ll you
do then?” (79) But Lennie couldn’t even imagine such a thing. He was totally addicted to
George and couldn’t even be one day without him.
Friendship means the most for everyone. Just like how friendship between George and
Lennie ment everything, really everything, for them. It was a terrible time during The Great
Depression so it was really unique that there were two guys wandering the country together
and helping each other. Some people wonder if it was right that George finally shot his best
and only friend, some even think a real friend would never do something like that but in this
case I think it was the best thing George could do for Lennie, at least to make him die happy.
Steinbeck,John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Bantam Books, 1965
-Cz-
NO HARD FEELINGS
In the book "Of Mice and Men" by John Stainbuck we face the situation when we must state our opinion. It is at the end when George shoots Lennie and he dies. The situation itself seems to be easily solved - it is wrong what George did because you shall not kill. On the other hand, many quotes and situations in the book show us that the two of them were really close friends. So was it really wrong to kill Lennie? Was there anything else George could do in that moment? Maybe first we must understand the relationship between them in order to understand George's actions.
George had been taking care of Lennie ever since Aunt Clara died and he felt responsible for him. As well as he knew that Lennie needed a protector, he also knew Lennie needed a friend. So he was both - his friend and his protector. As a protector he told him to go to their secret place if something bad happens and as a friend he promised him to come there to run away with him. "[...] You remember where we slep' last night? Down by the river?" "Yeah, I remember. Oh, sure I remember! I go there an' hide in the brush!" "Hide till I come for you. Don't let anybody see you. Hide in the brush by the river. Say that over."[pg.33-34]
The quote tells us that George didn't want anything bad happen to Lennie and wanted to protect him because he was both his friend and protector.
In spite of the fact the times during The Great Depression were dark and people were mostly traveling alone, George and Lennie decided to travel together, what was rather unusual. They cared about each other although Lennie was more dependent on his friend. Sometimes it seemed like George was only using Lennie to protect himself from stronger men because he wasn't very strong. But there is following passage in the book which tells us that George was Lennie's friend not only when he needed him but also when he was needed:
"Well, I can go away," said Lennie. "I'll go right off in the hills an' find a cave if you don't want me." George shook himself again. "No," he said. "I want you to stay with me here."
We can see that George decided not to leave Lennie when he had hard times and to stay there with him to help him. And that's something only a real friend does.
I already showed on examples that George and Lennie were indeed friends. Why did George kill Lennie then? The question in simple to ask but hard to asnwer. George knew his friend would die anyway. If he ran off to the forest, he would starve to death. If the men caught him, they would be merciless and brutally murder him. There were two options - he could stay with Lennie and run away or kill him by himself. But what was the guarantee that Lennie won't accidentally kill someone again? It had happened before in Weed and now here - he killed Curley's wife even though it wasn't his intention. Yes, George was Lennie's friend but it came at much too high a cost. He chose the second option where he at least could assure that George will die peacefully and happy.
"Tell about us now." George was quiet for a moment. "But not us." he said. "Because..." "Because I got you and---" "And I got you. We got each other, that's what, that gives a hoot in hell about us," Lennie cried in triumph. [pg. 114-115]
Lennie truly believed in the friendship between them and he was devoted to George. He trusted him and maybe if he had to choose his murderer, he would choose George. Because he trusted George more than anyone, more than he trusted himself.
George killed Lennie is a fact. Why did he do that is the question. In order to get an answer we must first decide what out priorities are. If we put moral before friendship or friendship before moral. Because if we choose the second one, then killing Lennie seems like a right thing to do in that situation. There were other options George had, there were other ways he could have helped Lennie. Maybe he would have felt guilty forever but that was his sin to bare...in that moment he did what was the best for his best friend. Because friendship is complicated like that.
Steinbeck,John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Bantam Books, 1965
*** Michelle ^-^
Of Mice and Men
In Of Mice and Men, there are many different sorts of personalities and Steinbeck, by his proffessionality, forces us to belove the most simple, stupid one. There were several discussions in my okolie about making Lennie independent. And as I love the ending and Steinbeck's writing, I had a discussion with myself how George was deciding to kill Lennie and about the depth of George's and Lennie's friendship. But the end pursuaded me about my simple final opinion, that their friendship was really deep.
Making Lennie independent would be very difficult thing to do. George exploited Lennie in a way that he wasn't bright- he "made" Lennie how he wanted Lennie to be like. Mabye if George and Lennie lived in different times, George could try to make Lennie independent. But during the Great depression's hard times George was forced to take care of himself and Lennie- how to survive, make some money. And he needed someone like Lennie- Lennie seems to me like a sort of happiness and "rest" for others. So, George was putting Lennie to a nice illusion to make Lennie happy. And, finally, I think that a kind of serious diagnose Lennie had needs a skilled psychologist. George did what he could do.
My favourite part of the book, the last dialogue between George and Lennie shows the depth of their friendship. In whole book I couldn't see very clearly that George and Lennie were close to each other, but in the end, George showed there all his feelings to Lennie. It was their nicest, longest, deepest conversation where you could feel how close were George and Lennie to each other. The ending is Steinbecks really good piece. After George killed Lennie I was angry at him but now, after some time I see that I like George (because of the ending). It is the only place where George is shown in totally different way- sensible, kind, vulnerable. And this is one strong, emotional part from their last conversation:
"But not us," "Tell about us now."[=Lennie].
George was quiet for a moment. "But not us,"he said.
"Because---"[=Lennie]
"Because I got you an'---"[=George]
"An' I got you. We got each other, that's what, that gives a hoot in hell about us," Lennie cried in triumph.[114-115]
George's last decision is mabye influenced by Lennie saying: "Le's do it. Let's get that place now."[117] George's mind probably listened to everything, but his brain listened just to Lennie's "Le's do it, let's do it now", because he then said "Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta."[117] Seems like his "right now, I gotta" is meant as a plan to killing Lennie and "right now, we gotta" is to Lennie about their place, so we see he again puts Lennie to a nice illusion- he sees the most important to make Lennie happy in Lennie's way, cause he kills him right after he says that. And this shows us also that George helped Lennie the best he could- he was putting Lennie to illusions whole life and in the moment of death he does the same thing- what he saw as the only valuable thing Lennie could get.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Bantam books, 1965.
hrozno
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