While the majority of George's actions could be considered altruistic, he does display some negative, selfish actions throughout the novella while dealing with Lennie. George continually expresses his frustration with Lennie and comes across as callous and insensitive at times. In the opening scene, George chastises Lennie for carrying and stroking a dead mouse. Instead of calmly telling Lennie to throw the mouse away, George calls Lennie a "crazy fool" and proceeds to question why he even associates with him. While Lennie is clearly heartbroken, George selfishly continues to ridicule his mentally disabled friend. Later on in the novella, George admits to Slim that he used to put Lennie in precarious situations in order to laugh at him, but stopped after Lennie almost drowned himself by following one of George's directives. George also leaves Lennie unsupervised several times throughout the novella, which ends in disaster after Lennie accidentally breaks Curley's wife's neck. Instead of being in proximity to Lennie at all times, George heads into town or enjoys a game of horseshoes with the other workers. Overall, George is a relatively altruistic person, but not all of his actions could be categorized as being generous and kind.
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