Of Mice and Men
Responsibility is defined as the state of being responsible, accountable, or answerable, as for a trust, debt, or obligation. A responsibility can also be something that you are actually accountable for such as a pet or a chore. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, a theme of responsibility is evident throughout the story. I found that this theme of responsibility allowed me to better relate to and understand many of the characters. I think the reason for this was because I was able to compare some of the characters' feelings of responsibility to feelings I've had in my own life. Responsibility is something that everyone deals with on a daily basis, no matter who they are, where they live, or how old they are. As a kid you might have had a pet to take care of or maybe you had a list of chores to do. As you grew older you gained more and more responsibility. By the time you were an adult you possessed the ability to completely take care of yourself and possibly even others. In the novel there are many prime examples of the importance of responsibility. These examples can be easily related to incidents that may occur in your own life. The theme of responsibility is apparent right at the beginning of the novel
One incident that demonstrates George's feelings of responsibility for Lennie is their escape from the town of Weed. The two had been working there when Lennie got himself into some trouble with the people from town. Lennie enjoyed touching things that felt soft so when he saw the nice, soft, red dress that the girl standing in front of him was wearing, he couldn't help but try to touch it. Naturally, this led to trouble. Men went out in search of Lennie, to One last example of the significance of responsibility is the conclusion to the novel. Once again Lennie has managed to get himself into trouble. Lennie does not always understand what the consequences of his actions will be, and in this particular incident he didn't even realize what he had done until it was too late. He killed Curly's wife and faced being locked up for the rest of his life or having his life taken away from him as payment for his crime. George struggled to come to the right decision about how to take care of Lennie after something like this. George knew that he couldn't let the guys find Lennie because he couldn't allow him to be killed savagely. He also couldn't allow him to be locked up for the rest of his life. That left George with only one possibility. He would have to take responsibility for Lennie and kill him himself. The cost to George of what he had to do was huge but he knew that he had to do it. Afterwards he was upset about what he had had to do but he did not regret it because he knew it had been his responsibility. Another event in the novel where Steinbeck stresses the importance of responsibility is when Lennie kills his puppy. When this part of the story is being told it is obvious that Lennie has killed his puppy accidental
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Approximate Word count = 1181
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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