Why Is Lennie Wrong In Of Mice And Men

The obligations that a person has to another in a friendship is a widely debated topic. Often, friends are placed in the difficult position where helping their friend may not be the best solution, but to what extent? In most cases, the “wrong” choice results in the endangering of the friendship. In the case of George and Lennie in the novel Of Mice and Men, the consequences would be much more severe regardless of George's final decision. On one hand, his mentally challenged friend and companion would have suffered a terrible fate if he was put into the hands of another man, so George did the only thing that was right in the situation. Lennie did not even understand what was happening after he killed Curley’s wife, so of course he could not comprehend the full consequences of his actions; he could only understand George’s anger. No, the only person Lennie can understand and listen to is George. He was justified in murdering Lennie for both …show more content…
Even after his accidental murder of Curley’s wife he “put the pup under his coat” leaving Curley’s wife “on her back, and she was half-covered with hay”(Steinbeck, 92), showing that Lennie cares more about the pup than Curley’s wife, or even his own predicament. Even after the incident in Weed, Lennie could not fully comprehend what happened in their former area of work, and his unintentional crime at the ranch was on a much higher scale. All that went through his head was “I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing”,(91)because Lennie could only think about not being allowed to tend the rabbits; Lennie did not possess the intellectual skill needed to wonder what would happen to him once Curley discovered his wife, dead. Even if the angry men on the ranch had cruely handed him his fate, he would still fail to comprehend what he had done. Lennie needed someone like George who understood what Lennie had gotten himself into to help him escape, even if his route to escape was through