Friendships in "Of Mice and Men"
Friendships in "Of Mice and Men"
True friends are people who know your faults, and love you in spite of them. They will do anything for you and stick by you through thick and thin. A true friend wants whatever is best for you. In John Steinback’s novel, Of Mice and Men, George was a true friend to Lennie. When all of his options ran out, George did what was best for Lennie, and for this reason should not be prosecuted for Lennie’s death.
Lennie was a great danger to himself and others. He was a very large, strong man who did not mean to harm anyone but didn’t realize when his great strength began to harm others. Because of his simple mindedness and sheer strength, Lennie had gotten himself into a lot of trouble several times before. The incidents started out small, and grew in severity each time. The first incident happened before Lennie and George came to the ranch, while they were working in the town of Weed. Lennie grabbed a lady’s dress because it was pretty and soft. When she became frightened, Lennie only held on tighter. Eventually she was able to free herself and run away. When the men in town heard of her encounter with Lennie, they took their dogs out to search for him. Because of that incident, George and Lennie had to leave Weed, and came to the ranch. QUOTE George told Lennie to keep his mouth shut and stay away from the men at the ranch. One day, the boss’s son, Curley, picked a fight with Lennie. He was just letting Curley beat him up until George instructed Lennie to defend himself. When he finally did, he crushed Curley’s hand. The trouble continued to get worse for Lennie. Once while petting his pup, he pet it too hard and killed it. Later when talking to Curley’s wife, she told him to touch her hair. Lennie liked touching soft things, and he couldn’t stop touching her hair. She became scared and screamed. In an effort to keep her quite, he covered her mouth, and tried to prevent her from struggling. In the process, he accidentally broke her neck. QUOTE Although Lennie liked soft, pretty things, he...