How does Lennie's killing of the puppy parallel his killing of curley's wife and the mice?

Answer 1

You can say that Lennie's increase in power and his victims builds up to the killing of the pup.

Firstly, he grabs a woman's dress innocently in Weed and she gets away, getting Lennie and George into trouble.

Then he kills a mouse and hides it from George because he knows he'll get in trouble, which he does. By now, it's suggesting that whatever he touches gets hurt because he doesn't know his own strength. We see his strength portrayed when Slim says that Lennie kills a worker, he's so good at his job, and no one can keep up.

Then comes the death of the pup. All he wants to do is stroke it, but by now we understand what comes from Lennie stroking things; they get destroyed, which is what happens.

Also, the pup builds up the death of Curley's wife also, which would be a good thing to put in an exam paper, because his victims are still increasing in size, and their fate remains the same.

Answer 2

Lennie's killing of the puppy illustrates his lack of awareness and control over his own strength, similar to when he accidentally kills the mice and Curley's wife. These incidents show that Lennie unintentionally harms things he cares about due to his inability to understand his own physical power.