ever once blames himself. If he would have been watching Lennie and taking care of him as he promised to do, none of this would have happened and nobody would be dead. Now, due to George's lack of loyalty to Lennie and his promise to take care of him, Lennie is doomed to suffer the consequences of an action that could have been prevented had he not been left alone.George knows that the workers from the ranch will kill Lennie when they find him and gives only a half-hearted effort to try to persuade them from pursuing this act of destruction and murder. As the story closes, George, in a somewhat noble act of kindness, makes the effort to find Lennie before any of the workers from the ranch can. He has a choice to make after he finds Lennie: he can run away and hide as he has done in the past, therefore insuring the safety of his onetime closest companion, or he can take Lennie's life himself. Due to his lack of loyalty to Lennie and his selfishness he chooses to take Lennie's life. It is significant to the story how George decides to kill his friend. He does not even give Lennie a chance to get away from his pursuers but instead he shoots him in the back of the head just like what had been done to Candy's dog. After all of the loyalty and love that both of these creatures had given to their respective "friends", both of the superior creatures decide that they don't need them any more and choose to end the dominated creatures lives in a less than honorable manner. When given the chance to gain something that he wanted, George chose to alienate and kill his most loyal friend in the world in the same manner that dogs and other less than human creatures are disposed of when they are no longer needed. This display of George's animalistic nature when presented the chance for advancement in life shows that loyalty, when put to the test, is never as strong as the person's desire to achieve his own dreams.Although Steinbeck is not trying to say t...
