DEATH Cassandra, Natasha, Samara, Tina and Yana.

The meaning of death: Death: the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism. Throughout the story ‘Of Mice And Men’, many deaths have occurred including the deaths of a small mouse, five puppies, an old dog, Curley’s wife and Lennie Small.

At the beginning of the journey, when characters Lennie Small and George Milton are fleeing from their old ranch, George begins to question what Lennie is hiding in his pocket. “Uh-uh, Jus’ a dead mouse, George I didn’t kill it. Honest! I found it, I found it dead” Pg. 6 Although Lennie said he just wanted to pet the dead mouse because he loves to touch soft things, it leads to a chain of deaths associated with Lennie’s fetish.

The character Slim resides on the ranch amongst all the other workers. When Slim’s dog had just given birth to nine puppies he made the tough decision to drown four of them due to his lack of wealth. Slim shares this with the other workers on the ranch. “Nine of ‘em. I drowned four of ‘em right off. She couldn’t feed that many”

Candy was one of the oldest workers on the ranch. He had lost his hand in an accident which resulted him to not do as much work as the others. Candy was very lonely and only had an old crippled dog, in which he loved and cared for very much. Carlson tries to persuade Candy into putting his dog down for his own benefit and because he didn’t like the smell of the old dog. “Look, Candy this ol’ dog jus’ suffers hisself all the time. If yous was to take cut and shoot him right in the back of the head.” “Right there, why he’d never know what hit him.” Carlson cruel words contributed to the death of Candy’s old smelly dog.

Lennie was taking care of his pup which was given to him from Slim in the barn, where he accidently used too much of his strength that resulted into him killing the puppy. “Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you hard.” He soon realised what he had done and knew the consequences would be harsh if George found out.

Curley’s wife was extremely bored on the ranch since she had no other friends to talk to. She found Lennie and the dead puppy in the barn she tried to start a flirtatious conversation with Lennie and offered him to feel her soft hair. When Lennie grabbed her hair, he didn’t let her go, which then caused Curley’s wife to panic and start screaming. “ ‘Don’t go yellin,’ he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.”

Lennie ran to hide in the brush near the stream since he remembered Georges words if he got into trouble. As soon as George found the dead bodies of the pup and Curley’s wife he knew where the culprit was. George had no other option but to go find Lennie and shoot himself because he saw how upset Candy was when Carlson killed Candy’s dog. Candy’s regret that he didn’t kill his old dog himself, which anticipates George’s decision to shoot Lennie “He pulled the trigger the crash of the shoot rolled up the hills and rolled down again, Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand and he lay without quivering”

Conclusion In conclusion the theme of death is a very big part of the novel. These deaths began out small and kept on growing throughout the novel which lead to deaths of some of the main characters This book shows how just one mistake could lead you to your own death also.