"Of Mice and Men" has a very disturbing ending. In the end, George is forced to kill his best friend, Lennie. George is affected by this in many ways. The fact that George killed Lennie may have freed George from caring for him but he now faces a new type of entrapment. There is also a great significance about how Steinbeck ends the novel. Steinbeck's conclusion is very cynical. .
Lennie's death may have been necessary but it greatly affected George. Killing Lennie meant George no longer had a social and humanitarian responsibility of protecting him. By George accepting responsibility for Lennie, it had given him a sense of purpose. Now that Lennie is dead, George has no purpose, he will be just another ordinary ranch hand. George also had to lie about Lennie's death, saying that Lennie had a gun as was going to shoot him. The most logical reason for George lying is because George is a survivor. If George admitted that he had stole Carlson's luger, he would be known as a thief around the ranch from now on, and if he admitted that he shot Lennie some would call him a murderer. George continues to go on living with his own feelings. He probably didn't feel guilty about killing Lennie. Instead, he just feel empty. George feels that he has failed Lennie, and loves him. Killing Lennie is purely an act of love and mercy, with no anger or revenge. George probably felt like a part of him was missing too, because he and Lennie had a symbiotic relationship. This means that they needed each other to survive. George did Lennie's thinking for him and tried to keep him out of trouble. But there is a question about why George needed Lennie. Lennie was more than just George's companion who kept him from being lonely. Lennie made George special. George was, "God damn smart alongside of him." George needed Lennie or he would be just like the other guys on the ranch. George and Lennie are like a two-sided person. George explains to Lennie that their specialness lies in the fact that they are together.