The final scene between George and Lennie is suffused with sadness, even though Lennie retains his ignorance until the very end.
To reassure Lennie, George forces himself through their habitual interaction one last time. He recites the story of their farm. For George, the final description of life with Lennie is a surrender of dreams. George realizes that all of his talk and plans have amounted to nothing. He convinced himself that he was not one among a legion of workers that can’t and won’t ever afford more than a shot of liquor and a prostitute. Without Lennie, George relinquishes his hope for a different life. Lennie was the only thing that distinguished his life from those of other men; it in a way gave him a sense of purpose.
With Lennie gone, George’s hopes cannot be sustained. The grim note on which the book closes suggests that dreams have no place in a world filled with injustice and adversity.
In my opinion George was right to shoot Lennie because it saved Lennie from going through the trauma of being threatened and shot by Curley, also, George shooting Lennie was a safer way because Lennie had already damaged Curley before so there was nothing to stop him from somehow doing it again.
Also, George knows best out of all the characters what is best for Lennie and I doubt that he would do anything that would endanger Lennie even more. I also think that Slim’s understanding of George and Lennie’s relationship helped George to overcome the initial shock slightly and also it may have convinced or encouraged George to be the one that shoots Lennie. Carlson and Curley had no idea of how George felt and wondered why he was so upset over the death of friend. It shows that men in the 1930s were insensitive and not really very understanding. It also shows that they probably didn’t value their friends very much, because if they did they would understand how George felt and would have reacted more like Slim rather than reacting as ignorant as they did. This doesn’t mean to say that they were not shocked because they were, they were shocked at the fact that George had shot his own friend, rather than the grief that George must feel. It would have been wrong of George to shoot Lennie without a reason, but he did and it was a feasible reason, anyone can see his point of view reasonably easily. It also goes as a nature cycle, because although Lennie is big and powerful, he has weaknesses of which are easy to get to, anything soft and cuddly Lennie is drawn to, he wouldn’t last if he was alone, he only knows discipline through being told frequently, being told off for doing things wrong. Although, Lennie couldn’t help what he did, Lennie just did things out of innocent ignorance, but ignorance wouldn’t make him survive on his own. He would need someone keeping an eye out for him permanently and if that person didn’t do that then he wouldn’t survive, he would be too weak mentally to survive, therefore he would either die from doing something stupid or would be killed by someone cunning and sly.
In conclusion, I think that George was right to shoot Lennie, because it was for the welfare of everyone at the ranch, including Lennie. It is sad and upsetting but it had to be done, and George had the decency to let Lennie die the best way he could, dreaming of their life at their farm, with himself tending the rabbits and living off the fatta’ the lan’.
