The book Of Mice and Men is short and few choices are made, but the tragic ending could have been avoided with one simple, small choice. That choice happened when one of the main characters, named Lennie, decided to stay and talk to this “tart” who he had been told to stay away from by George, the person who watches over Lennie. Although a normal person at the ranch would have just avoided the “tart” because she is the daughter in-law of their boss, Lennie has some sort of mental disability that causes him to fall for this girl’s tricks. Those same tricks ultimately get her killed. If this girl had decided not to flirt with Lennie enticing him to feel her hair, or if Lennie had remembered George’s warnings, both Lennie and the girl might have still been around at the end of the story.
At the end of the book George kills his companion Lennie because Lennie had accidentally killed the boss’s daughter in-law when she convinced Lennie to feel her hair. The whole ranch was hunting Lennie as if he were some animal, so George took it upon himself to find Lennie and end his life. Although this seems cruel and harsh it was a fitting end to the story with all the other trouble Lennie has brought down on both George and himself. Lennie had a mental disability that made him always want to pet soft things. For example, he saw a woman wearing a velvet red dress that he wanted to feel, and the woman went to the police to report that Lennie had raped her. Lennie and George were forced