How Does Steinbeck Present the Theme of Death In

How does Steinbeck present the theme of death in ‘Of Mice and Men’? In Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men”, the book  presented  presented presents the reader with two deaths. The first one is Candy’s Candy’s dog, which has already been with him since he was young; and the other is Lennie, who is George’s best friend, his companion, they travel together and take care of each other. They both die for a different reason: Candy’s Candy’s dog dies because of  of Carlson Carlson’s ’s is a bully, and he shoots shoot s it. Lennie dies because George wants to save Lennie, because of love. However, despite the different motivations for the two deaths, in many ways they are parallel. First of all, for the death of Candy’s dog. It is already very old, for it stays with Candy since he was small (Candy is now an old man). The dog was not feeling good and was already waiting to die, it was also a lso quite smelly. Therefore, Carlson complains about it and even asks their leader Slim for advice, so he can shoot Candy’s Candy’s dog. Carlson likes to use his Luger to shoot, therefore he bullies Candy, Candy, the old man, and shotinto allowing him to shoot his dog. In the book, Candy do es not have a friend, except George. Candy has a feeling of loneliness, for he has only George and his dog. However, Carlson shot his dog, he can now only rely on George, and to to be  be less lonely. After the death of his dog, it encourages Candy to join George and Lennie’s plan,  because he want somebody to be with, even he will be the one who contribute most in the plan. He also regrets regret s for  for doing doing something wrong, “I shouldn’t let no stranger shoot my dog.” He regretsted regretsted that because he didn’t doesn’t know how Carlson killed kills his dog, whether it is in a painful way or a quick one. Furthermore, it is a parallel to the death of Lennie, George has to kill Lennie on his own, so as to make sure that Curley will not lock Lennie up in a cage and torture him. As for the death dea th of Lennie, George saves Lennie by killing him. As mentioned above, Curley may lock him up and torture Lennie so as to take revenge for his hand and his wife. “This ain’t no good”, as their leader Slim said. Slim knew that Curley may torture Lennie, so he told George. Also, because of Candy’s Candy’s regret of didn’tfor not killing killing his dog by dog by himself, George knows know s that he has to kill Lennie on his own, so as to save him. Lennie did acommitted a fatal fault, he killed Curley’s wife when he was  panicking. “He couldn’t do no more harm than a child, except he was so strong.” Lennie was the strongest character in the book, and with ‘big paws’, and that is why he has the strength to kill Curley’s wife by accident. Lennie’s fault makes Candy, George and Lennie’s dream over, and it was already no re turn, this fault makes the  book drawing to an end. Lennie is George’s George’s only companion, without Lennie, his dream can’t come true. They rely on each other,’ I got you to look after, and you got

me to look after to.’ Their relationship are just like real brothers. In conclusion, the two deaths are haveing a different reasons. One is because of being  bullied, and the other is because of love. The deaths also make the readers feel pity. For example, before Lennie will be shot by George, he was still thinking of the rabbits and their dream, this makes us feel pity for Lennie, for he was just like a child. Unfortunately, the death of Lennie draws their dream to an end. And the death of Curley’s Wife? You should also have explored this death as it is the  point in the story when all hope and optimism is extinguished. The description of  Curley’s Wife after her death is also interesting as it reveals that in death she gains  peace. It is almost as if Steinbeck is suggesting that their lives are so arduous that death is a welcome escape. (582 words)