Téma:Of Mice and Men
Jazyk: Angličtina – argumentative essay
Přidal(a): Anna Gregušová
3 ´George is freed of his burden at the end of the novel.´ Do you agree with this statement? (Argumentative – For/ Against)
In John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men Lennie and George are an inseparable pair and always deal with their life together. Father-like George always takes care of forgetful, irresponsible, and childish Lennie who at the end of the novel commits a murder. Consequently, George does not see any other option but to shoot Lennie. Is George freed due to Lennie’s death or was killing him a huge mistake?
Firstly, Lennie stood by George’s side all his life and now after Lennie’s death, George has to deal with living on his own. For a person that used to have a company all the time, it’s really hard to deal with the fact that he is now all alone. Lennie was the only person in George’s life who respected him and listened to him.
“George yelled, I said get him. Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it. The next minute Curley was flopping like a fish on a line, and his closed fist was lost in Lennie’s big hands.” (p. 64)
Secondly, from now on George has to live with the horrible thought that he killed the only close person who stood by him all his life.
“Because I got you an ” “An I got you. We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in hell about us.” (p. 104)
Living with such a terrible thought is very destructive to anyone no matter how strong the person is. Even though George’s intention may seem to be good it should never be an excuse to commit such a heinous crime.
The only reason why they keep staying together is their desire to own a piece of land and house, but Lennie makes their American dream unreachable. Lennie is simple-minded, immature and his disobedience gets them fired from many jobs preventing them from saving enough money to pursue their American dream.
George sacrifices his personal life to take care of Lennie. If he had not invested so much time and effort in baling Lennie out of troubles every time, he would have had a wife and kids by now.
God you’re a lot of trouble, I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl. (p. 8)
Lastly, if George had not killed him in a painless way Lennie would have been murdered viciously by Curley.
In conclusion, killing your only friend is horrible and George will be hunted forever. George did not kill in hatred but with a desperate urge to save his future and to free Lennie from his earthly troubles. From now on George can live the life he always wanted without the ever-present obligation to care and protect a trouble maker such as Lennie.
