Death In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men
Death is a horrendous thing that can cause an irreplaceable hole in somebody’s life. Death can also represent chaos and the pain of another character in the story. In Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, the deaths of Johnny, Dally, and Bob created an intriguing plot and unveiled the hidden feelings and personalities of characters who react to the deaths, like Dally and Randy. The major deaths in The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, which are the deaths of Candy’s Dog, Curley’s Wife, and Lennie, displayed the personalities of the characters who killed them and developed the story in the book. The theme of death reveals hidden elements of characters who strongly felt a certain way about the character. Even though death is the end of a character, it
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When Lennie died, he had just killed Curley’s Wife and George knew that his punishment from Curley would be atrocious, so George decided to kill Lennie himself out of love, even though he did not want Lennie to die. “His hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied….George shivered and looked at the gun, then he threw it from him, back up on the bank, near the pile of old ashes.” (pg 106) He George knows that once Lennie dies, he will become one of the “loneliest guys in the world”, just like the lonely men he describes in his story to Lennie. “Guys like us got no family. They make a little stake an’ then they blow it in. They ain’t got nobody who gives a hoot in hell about ‘em…but not us.” pg 104. At the point in the book when Dally dies, Johnny had just died, and Dally dies by holding a loaded gun to the police and getting shot. When Dally dies, in a way, he commits suicide because Johnny was Dally’s only soft spot, and now he is dead. “Please, not him... not him and Johnny both--I knew he would be dead, because Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted.” (pg 154) Though it might have appeared like that, Dally’s death was not an accident and he was fully aware that the police would shoot him. The theme of death in The Outsiders and Of Mice And Men affects the characters and the plot of the story in a massive
When Lennie died, he had just killed Curley’s Wife and George knew that his punishment from Curley would be atrocious, so George decided to kill Lennie himself out of love, even though he did not want Lennie to die. “His hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied….George shivered and looked at the gun, then he threw it from him, back up on the bank, near the pile of old ashes.” (pg 106) He George knows that once Lennie dies, he will become one of the “loneliest guys in the world”, just like the lonely men he describes in his story to Lennie. “Guys like us got no family. They make a little stake an’ then they blow it in. They ain’t got nobody who gives a hoot in hell about ‘em…but not us.” pg 104. At the point in the book when Dally dies, Johnny had just died, and Dally dies by holding a loaded gun to the police and getting shot. When Dally dies, in a way, he commits suicide because Johnny was Dally’s only soft spot, and now he is dead. “Please, not him... not him and Johnny both--I knew he would be dead, because Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted.” (pg 154) Though it might have appeared like that, Dally’s death was not an accident and he was fully aware that the police would shoot him. The theme of death in The Outsiders and Of Mice And Men affects the characters and the plot of the story in a massive