Part 5&6: RIP Lennie

In part 5 and 6 a lot of shocking things happened. I am going to focus on George killing Lennie in the final pages of the book. In parts 5 and 6 we learned that Lennie had killed several people before, including Curley's wife. George felt like Lennie had to go because he was too dangerous and was putting others in harmful situations. Even though George shot Lennie, I strongly feel that he still loved Lennie. He didn't want Lennie to leave him forever, but he thought that that was the safest option for others. I know it was hard for George to kill Lennie because of the way he was trying to comfort Lennie, he said, "ever'body gonna be nice to you. Ain't gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from 'em" (106). He was trying to relax Lennie and allow him to die somewhat with peace. I also thought that George was connecting those words to what Lennie had done and was trying to message to Lennie of what would happen in heaven. He said that everybody would be nice to Lennie. In Lennie's life people told him not to speak or act the way he wanted, but rather to hide his personality. George may have felt guilt for controlling Lennie so much that he wanted him to know that no one would treat him like that anymore. Then George said that there would be no more trouble. Lennie wouldn't get in trouble for petting hair, skirts, mice, rabbits, or dogs, if he was in heaven. Following that George said that no one would steal or hurt anyone. Meaning that it would be impossible for Lennie to hurt anyone or steal, like he to did Curley's wife. He stole her life and harmed her and her husband. And that also meaning that no one would be able to steal his life like George was about to do. No matter what George said or did in the book I believe that he always knew that Lennie would go to heaven, despite how frustrated and mad he got at him. George knew that Lennie was not in full control of his actions. He also knew how big his heart was. George knew that Lennie wouldn't harm a person or animal purposely and he knew that killing so many things wasn't in Lennie's full control. He knew that Lennie would die and go to heaven, and that maybe the reason he was finally able to pull the trigger.


What do you think?