The Pauper and the Pie

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, many reasons support why when George killed Lennie, it was a selfish act. George abused Lennie physically, mentally, and emotionally, and Lennie’s death was not a big impact on George at all. Why? It was as if all his burdens had flown away after he had murdered Lennie. Several times throughout the novel, George proved that he was a detestable friend. On page 24, he said he would kill himself if he were related to Lennie. George also joked about how he used to play pranks on him and Lennie would never do anything about it. George took advantage of Lennie’s mental disability and used it for his own entertainment. He continuously described how his life without Lennie would be a successful one, implying what a burden Lennie was. On page 11 as well as on page 103, George says “If I were alone, I could live so easy…”.This showed that even through time, his wish to be alone doesn’t change and he would like to get rid of Lennie. There was a positive future for George if he wasn’t Lennie’s responsibility. George could hold down a job, he didn’t have to run every time Lennie made a mistake. George could have had many job opportunities, could spend his money the way he wanted to as he described on page {                        }, could have had a girlfriend, his sole responsibility would be himself, and he wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning anyone else’s mess.

                George finds great amusement when he takes away anything that Lennie enjoys. When Lennie picks up mice, George finds great joy when he throws them away many times, despite if it is unsanitary or not. Another cruel intention that George has is using their “dream” as Lennie’s bait. Though it may seem like motivation, George crushes Lennie’s dreams how? Lennie doesn't know it's never going to happen so he is happy anyway because it never really was going to happen and now George didn’t have to lie to anyone after Lennie’s death, another type of pressure of his chest. When Lennie killed Curly’s wife, on page 95, he made sure Candy discovered the body first so it would not look like George was involved. He even goes with the crowd, and did not support Lennie. Overall, there are an abundance of reasons why it was selfish of George to kill Lennie. This is mainly because George could live as he wanted and it was selfish to murder someone as George didn’t look for alternatives, and didn’t even hesitate to shoot the bullet through his head.