Student Question
What does George killing Lennie symbolize at the end of Of Mice and Men?
Quick answer:
George killing Lennie in Of Mice and Men symbolizes the harsh reality of broken dreams and the impossibility of a better life amid societal injustice. George's act also reflects mercy, sparing Lennie from a worse fate at the hands of others. This final act signifies George's surrender of hope and the profound loss of his unique purpose and companionship with Lennie.
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Why did George shoot Lennie at the end of Of Mice and Men?
George and Lennie are the two main characters in John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men. The two men are traveling through depression era California as migrant farm workers. Lennie is mentally challenged and is, in many ways, a burden to George. He is also a very large and strong man who often does not realize his own strength.
At the beginning of the novel George makes reference to the problem he and Lennie faced in the town of Weed when Lennie tried to touch a girl's dress:
“Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress—jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse—Well, how the hell did she know you jus’ wanted to feel her dress? She jerks back and you hold on like it was a mouse. She yells and we got to hide in a irrigation ditch all day with guys lookin’ for us, and we got to sneak out in the dark and get outa the country. All the time somethin’ like that—all the time."
George is understandably leery of what Lennie might do, so he tells him that if he once again finds himself in trouble to return to the spot in the woods which is the opening setting of the book and "hide in the brush."
As the plot develops we meet several more characters, including the old swamper, Candy, whose dog is old and decrepit. One of the working men suggests that Candy put the dog out of its misery, but Candy doesn't have the heart to kill the dog he raised from a puppy. Instead he lets Carlson shoot the dog. The scene is significant because, in an example of foreshadowing, Candy tells George that “I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog.”
As George expected, Lennie once again gets in trouble, but this time it is far more serious as he accidentally kills Curley's wife. Before Curley and the other men set off to apprehend Lennie, Slim warns that Lennie will not understand the consequences of his actions nor the animosity which Curley feels for him. Slim says,
"But Curley’s gonna want to shoot ‘im. Curley’s still mad about his hand. An’ s’pose they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good, George.”
Even before hearing Slim's analysis of the situation, George has decided the best course of action regarding his friend. He has taken Carlson's gun and plans to shoot Lennie. As Candy suggested, George does not want a stranger killing his friend. In the final chapter George indeed shoots Lennie in the same spot that is the setting of the first chapter.
It may seem a harsh reality today that George had to kill his friend, but in the 1930's there was very little sympathy for those with Lennie's disability. Had Lennie been captured he would have been locked up and treated very poorly, something he certainly would not have understood. In fact, Lennie totally forgot what he had done. He simply knew that he had "done another bad thing" and George was going to "give him hell."
In Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, why does George kill Lennie?
George promised Lennie's Aunt Clara that he would take care of Lennie after she died. Lennie's mind is like that of a child's so he couldn't take care of himself if it weren't for someone looking after him. When Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife, Curley vows to kill him. George knows that if Curley gets to Lennie first, he won't just kill him, he may do something worse before he allows him to die. George feels it's his duty to deal with Lennie in a more humane way.
There's also a parallel connection about George's responsibility with Lennie and Candy's old dog. Carlson actually goes out and kills Candy's blind, old dog for him. Afterwards, Candy says to George that he should have taken care of his dog instead of letting someone else do it for him. George must feel the same way about Lennie. When Candy shows George the woman's dead body, they both know Lennie had done it. George says the following:
"Lennie never done it in meanness. . . All the time he done bad things, but he never done one of 'em mean. . . We gotta tell the guys. They got to bring him in, I guess. They ain't no way out. Maybe they won't hurt 'im. . . I ain't gonna let 'em hurt Lennie" (95).
Lennie was like Candy's dog: both were killed to prevent them from further suffering. After killing Curley's wife, Lennie wasn't going to live to be brought up on charges because Curley grabbed a gun and set out to kill him. It was difficult to do, but George killed Lennie because he felt it was his duty to save Lennie the horror of being faced with a mob of men who would make his death worse than it needed to be.
In Of Mice and Men, why does George kill Lennie?
Believe it or not, Steinbeck sees the ultimate theme in this novel as hopeful. As depressing as the ending might be for us, George sacrifices everything--his dream, his friendship, his happiness, and maybe more--in order to keep Lennie from suffering. Everything in this novel is bleak, dark, and bitter except for this perfect act of selflessness. How powerful does Steinbeck think friendship can be if it is the only bright spot in this sad, lonely world depicted in the novel?
I believe that George also realized that Lennie's uncontrollable strength would continue to get the two of them in trouble if they somehow managed to elude capture following the death of Curly's Wife. There is little chance that Lennie could have escaped the people sent to hunt him down, so George acted out of friendship by putting him out of misery himself. Although Lennie never meant to kill Curly's Wife--or the puppy or the rabbit or the mice--his loving attempts to caress always seemed to turn into tragedy. For his own sake, George could not allow himself to be involved in another such episode.
In short, since you asked several...
1. George is small, square-faced, smarter, and a father-figure. Chapter 1 would give you the best quotes on the 2nd-5th pages of the chapter. Lennie is big, rounder-faced, dumb, childish and mentally slow. He is compared to a bear in the beginning.
2. The setting given in the beginning is on purpose because it is the exact spot that the story ends. The setting in chapter 1 is by a river, more specifically a pool, just off the road on a quiet and serene day.
3. George had to kill Lennie because he would have hurt others again, and had George let someone else kill Lennie, Lennie would have suffered.