Part 5 and 6

In part 6 of Of Mice and Men, Lennie is shot in the back of his head by George. After Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife by playing with her hair and breaks her neck, he runs away. When Curley finds his wife lying dead on the ground, he knew that Lennie had done it. He was furious and wanted to kill Lennie immediately. Curley and the rest of the men left to go find Lennie and kill him. George remembered that he told Lennie to run away to the bush whenever there is trouble, so George went ahead of everyone else to go find Lennie before Curley would find him and kill him. Once George finds Lennie, they both start talking about their dream and how Lennie would tend to rabbits. Earlier in the book Carlson says "'Got a Luger. It won't hurt him none at all.'" (47) when he is trying to convince Candy that he should kill his dog. Carlson explains to shoot the dog in the back of the head, so he won't feel any pain. George remembers where to shoot Lennie, so he grabs Carlson's Luger and shoots him. Once the men saw that George shot Lennie, Slim said, "You hadda, George. I swear you hadda" (107). This made me think that George shot Lennie because he didn't want Lennie to suffer if Curley would have done it. George wanted Lennie to find peace and be happy before he dies, which is why George was talking about their dream. He wanted Lennie to think of a happy and safe place. This explains why George shot Lennie in the end of the book.