Is Lennie Guilty of a Crime if He Can’t Remember It, Essay Example

Lennie may indeed be reckoned as guilty for committing a crime because even in the case where he is assumed to not remember killing Curley’s wife, it can be hardly believed. Lennie already proved his aggressive behavior earlier in the story while travelling with George – his companion. Earlier in the day when the two were chased by an enraged crowd of men, Lennie had met a women, he unintentionally inveighed her when he could not withstand touching her velvet dress, which seemed very soft and was of an attractive red color. The woman was terrified by Lennie’s interest and she fled from him in terror for help. Such circumstances compelled the companions to leave the territory if they wanted to stay out of trouble.

Later in the story Lennie displayed more examples of the use of extensive force, even though he had no bad intension. Lennie is attracted by cute, soft, colorful objects. George once ran into Lennie when he was stroking the fur of a dead mouse. Lennie did not realize that he had killed the mouse himself by means of over-intensive stroking. George was shocked, after throwing out the dead mouse he promised Lennie to get him a puppy. The promise was kept and Lennie was gifted a puppy, but here the same story happened as with the mouse. Lennie was very fond of the nice puppy and also unintentionally stroked the puppy to death with his exceeding, not comprehended strength.

Not long after the incident with the puppy, Curly’s wife tried to seduce Lennie. She had marvelous ebony, shiny, satin soft hair and she succeeded in her seduction. Here again Lennie did not comprehend his strength, he stroked her too eagerly, thereby he scared her. She got terrified with the great increase of strength used at her, she first cried then even screamed. This at once reminded Lennie of the last time a similar occasion had happened. He wanted to stop the screaming in order to prevent the same results and troubles as the last time, so he by intention squeezed her tight to death by breaking her neck. Death was instant.

That specific event was absolutely controlled by Lennie, he realized what he was doing and he proceeded to harm Curly’s wife. Lennie even realized that he had done a bad thing, that is why he had ran away to the place George told him to run to if he got into trouble. He is guilty at the crime for knowing and realizing how horrible his actions were, which proved the fact that he had remember the event. In panic of fearing that the screaming of Curly’s wife would bring troubles he used his extensive strength and killed her in a motive to avoid trouble. Thereby he is definitely guilty.