Hard Choices In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Of Mice and Men is a novel written by John Steinbeck. It was published in 1937. This story has the characters George Milton and Lennie Small, who travel together looking for new job opportunities during the Great Depression. The author shows that difficult choices are always needed to make the right ones. Steinbeck shows just this using the characters George and Lennie in his novel. First off, in the story, Lennie knows he is unusual. He thinks that he is a bother, much rather than wanted around. He offered to leave George, and run away in the mountains to live alone. From this, George quickly denied the topic that Lennie had brought up. Lennie had said “George, you want I should go away and leave you alone? I could go off in the hills there.…show more content…
He wanted George to be happy, and he felt like he was being a drag. Lennie chose to stay with George, instead of leaving. Another way the story shows difficult choices is the part of the novel when Candy’s dog is killed. Carlson wants to shoot Candy's dog because he is old, ill, smelly, and a hinderance to have around to feed. Carlson only wants to end Candy's dog misery. Carlson said thoughtfully, “Well, looka here, Slim. I been thinkin’. That dog of Candy’s is so God damn old he can’t hardly walk. Stinks like hell, too. Ever’ time he comes into the bunk house I can smell him for two, three days. Why’n’t you get Candy to shoot his old dog and give him one of the pups to raise up? I can smell that dog a mile away. Got no teeth, damn near blind, can’t eat. Candy feeds him milk. He can’t chew nothing else.” Candy didn’t like this idea at all. He loved his dog, since he had it for so long. He must of thought hard about the death of his dog. After Candy thought about it, he imagined how unhappy the poor old dog would be. He agreed to let his dog be put out of it’s misery. This was another way the author expressed that hard choices are to be made for the right ones to be put in…show more content…
The boys had left town for a little while, leaving Lennie behind. He was playing with the little puppy, and accidently killed it by smacking it too hard. Soon after, Curly’s wife came in the room. She offered Lennie to feel how soft her hair is, but shortly after, she tried to pull away only to have his hand latch onto her. When Curley's wife started to holler, Lennie started shaking her, but only causing her neck to snap. Lennie knew he had done something bad, and ran off into the brush where George said to go if trouble was ever around. When the men came back only to find the wife dead, they went looking for Lennie. While the other men had hate and confusion in their mind, George had only one thing on his mind, and that was to save Lennie. George kills Lennie by shooting him in the back of the head to save him from a more painful death at the hands of Curley, who has vowed to make him suffer for the death of his wife. George really loves Lennie, he is a dear friend to him and always will be. He doesn’t want Lennie to die horribly, especially since Lennie didn’t mean to take the life of Curley's wife. Just like the way he didn’t mean to pet the puppy too hard, or squeezed the mice to death. Lennie just doesn’t comprehend his own strength. When Curley's wife screamed, he didn't know how to make her stop except to do what he did, but
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