English essay on Of Mice and Men

Candy and the dog are both living on borrowed time, which means as soon as the boss finds out Candy is too old to work, he’ll throw him, and Candy won’t have anywhere to go. When Candy’s dog does get shot he feels instant regret. This is because he felt he should have shot the dog, and not Carlson. Candy feels that by not doing this, he has betrayed his dog and let him down. If anyone is supposed to take responsibility over anyone, it should be their best or closest friend. He wasn’t there to comfort the dog too, he feels guilt and is let down by his actions.

Some one else that is in the same position as Candy and his dog are Lennie and George. George being the strongest to the two is very protective over Lennie. He makes a point of always telling what to do, but for his own good. People at the ranch criticize George on his choice of friendship, but this is because no one else seems to have a close companionship except them and Candy and his dog. They are jealous they don’t have the privilege to have someone to rely on. George and Lennie really do count on each other, as they are planning to get some money together and buy and farm so they can grow their own food and have animals. At the end of the book, when George kills Curley’s wife, he runs away just like George told him to and hides. When George finally finds him, he knows Lennie is going to be killed by an angry mob, so he takes the matter into his own hands. He speaks to Lennie about how they’re going to live, and about rabbits, as Lennie loves them so. This way he can kill Lennie without a sore consciousness and with Lennie truly happy.

The only other couple in the story are Curley and his wife, who has no name in the book. This shows that women weren’t the same status like men, and also like Candy’s dog, she doesn’t really have any value to anyone’s life in the book, so she dies along with Lennie and the dog. Though she and Curley didn’t have a good relationship, he obviously cared for her, and went crazy when she was killed. Because it was Lennie who killed her, Curley felt like it was his responsibility to kill Lennie. Curley new what his wife’s nature was like, flirtatious and open. This would make the reader think that Curley was maybe jealous that it wasn’t him that killed her, but Lennie, who is seen as the ‘village idiot’.

In this novel, I think Steinbeck was trying to tell us that if you have companionship throughout the toughest times of your life, don’t count on it, because one day the other person will let you down. He also wanted to show that whoever you take companionship with; you will have to take responsibility of their death. He wanted to show the readers that in a tough time, you can’t have someone to reply on all the time you have to be independent and strong.