Preview

Of Mice And Men Mercy Killing Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
674 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Of Mice And Men Mercy Killing Analysis
Mercy killing a way of release from suffering. In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck set during the Great Depression, Lennie is mentally disabled and has George a good friend to watch over him. George and Lennie are migrant workers and time after time Lennie is making mistakes which are making their life harder and harder because Lennie forgets many things so he can never learn from his mistakes. At their last job Lennie does not realize his own strength and murders Curly a migrant worker’s wife in a barn on the ranch. The rest of the migrant workers are after him. And their goal is torture him or kill him. In the end George kills Lennie to end their suffering which was the right thing to do. George killing Lennie was the right thing to do. At one of places that George and Lennie were working out …show more content…
However, Lennie is mentally disabled so he cannot make decisions for himself. Lennie cannot realize his mistakes when he killed the puppy. He said “Now maybe George ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits, if he fin’s out you got killed.” (Steinbeck 85). If Lennie cannot realize his own mistakes there is no way he can make such important decisions. Lennie also did not realize what was right a wrong when he had a dead mouse in his pocket. “It’s on’y a mouse, George.” (Steinbeck 5). If George cannot realize a simple thing such as a dead mouse being wrong he again cannot make such a big decision. Lennie is not mentally capable of making such a big decision. In conclusion George did the right thing in killing Lennie. Lennie was making his and George’s life way harder than it needed to be. He was not able to realize simple mistakes and was always forgetting things. George took care of Lennie for a while, and he still loves Lennie. That is why he did what he did .Lennie was just too much to handle. That is why George did the right thing. He loved too much to keep him causing them

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    George treatment did prove Lennie wrong. I don't think that George acted mean but did act mean for the way of killing a guy. I think that Lennie got proven wrong that George would've done something wrong. Also in chapter six it stated that when Lennie put down the gun, "George looked down at the gun. '' So that one way to explain Lennie that George could've done something bad at the time but didn't kept the conversation going.…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, George makes a rash decision, and that decision is shooting Lennie. I think George made the right decision shooting Lennie because Curley would’ve made sure Lennie was tortured, and Lennie got to die happy. Also, George gets to make sure no one else can get their hands on Lennie, causing him to get hurt worse than what already happened.…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    George has Lennie's back in every situation no matter what. George only wants what's best for Lennie. If George didn't care for Lennie he probably would've been dead sooner. When they were in Weeds George helped Lennie escape from the mob that had been sent to kill him, he also took Lennie's work card so he wouldn't lose it. George killed Lennie because he was looking out for him.”I oughtta of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't oughtta of let no stranger shoot my dog”(61). Candys words came to mind to George and realized that he was the only one Lennie had. He was the only one who got frustrated with him but cared oh so much about him. Lennie had more than just a gunshot coming to him but George instead shortened his suffering by pulling the trigger…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What George did to his friend Lennie was all that he could do and George had no other choice. In the story Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, George has to kill his friend Lennie because there a mod coming after Lennie trying to kill him. George sees no other option but to kill him before the mob gets to him. Lennie has also hurt too many helpless things, he killed mice, a puppy, and now a human. Lennie has never been punished for his actions and unfortunately it had to come to this. What George did to Lennie was completely justified…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do you think George should have killed Lennie even though they were friends? In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men the main character George Milton had to make many tough decisions for himself and his friend Lennie Small. While George and Lennie are friends George ends up looking after Lennie more than anything due to his mental disability. Although Lennie was a hard worker, he made the mistake of killing the ranch owners daughter in-law which led George to have to make the decision to end his life in a quick manner, go on the run again, or let him suffer at the hand of the Ranch owners son. In the end George makes the decision to end Lennie’s life because he didn’t want to see him suffer at the hand of the ranch owners son, and he didn’t want anyone else to lose a loved one.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How Did George Kill Lennie

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Some people might think that George is not a true friend to Lennie. They might think this because George kills Lennie. George could have run away with Lennie instead of killing him, or he could have let Lennie run away on his own. He killed Lennie because it was the best option he had. The mob could have found Lennie, and Lennie would just mess up again. Also he killed him peacefully, which is better than any other form of death and a sign of compassion. If George didn’t kill Lennie Curley’s mob would have killed him in a more painful way, which George would not…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Steinbeck wrote a book called “Of Mice and Men.” Of Mice and Men is an engaging novel about two migrant workers, Lennie and George, who are trying to obtain their dreams of having their own home together. George is small and quick and is the alpha. The other is Lennie, who is big and strong, but has a mental disability, making him slow and in constant need of help and guidance. Throughout the book, trouble becomes increasingly worse, and George ends up having to kill Lennie. Most people believe that is was George’s responsibility to look after Lennie, making his killing unjustified. However, George was justified in killing Lennie because Lennie had previously hurt people, Lennie is not going to get a trial, and George cannot always be there for Lennie.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How Is Lennie Different

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages

    George is the one who kills Lennie. Lennie did not understand that his actions have consequences and at times you have to pay for them, but what is bad for him is that because of his disability he does not know what is wrong from…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many believe that it is immoral if George to kill Lennie. Despite the fact that he is killing him and killing is thought to be morally forbidden, one needs to understand why he thinks its the best thing to do. George is doing what he thinks is right. It is not immoral of George to kill Lennie.…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie have a very close relationship and their companionship is quite deep. During the 1930s, which was during The Great Depression, George and Lennie escape from Weed because they get into trouble. George has to look after Lennie because Lennie’s Aunt, Clara, is dead and no one takes care of Lennie. Then, they go to the Salinas Valley where they are going to work on a ranch. In the novel, George is morally right to kill Lennie because George wants to protect Lennie from the painful death and save other people from Lennie’s uncontrolled strength.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the end of the story Of Mice and Men, George faced the moral dilemma of killing his best friend Lennie or letting Lennie face the consequences of killing Curley’s wife. He made the right decision in killing Lennie. His reasoning behind it was mostly for Lennie’s benefit but there was a small portion of George that was glad to do the job. Although it would’ve been right morally for Lennie to be turned in to the police and face justice for his actions that just doesn’t happen due to the type of situation they’re in.…

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In John Steinbeck 's classic novella, Of Mice and Men, one of the predominant themes that govern the story and characters in the book is friendship. One of the ways in which friendship plays a large role is in the area of mercy killing, which affects the main characters as well as the supporting ones. The two major mercy killings that occur in the book are those of Carlson 's killing of Candy 's old dog, and of George 's killing of Lennie. In both of these examples, the killer kills the other out of mercy and love, not for the usual motives of hatred, rage, anger, etc.…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One may want to say that what George did, that is shooting Lennie, was either the right or wrong decision. To put it into such a black and white decision, right or wrong, good or bad, compassion or unjustification, cannot fully describe the choice that George made. You cannot truly say if what he did was right or not, but simply that he had to. What George did was something that his moral compass told him must be done. How can you say that they would have gotten away if George had done otherwise, that they would have escaped and made it to another ranch and continued on with their lives. Chances are they would not get away, chances are Lennie would have died either way, creating a situation even more cataclysmic on Georges…

    • 135 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Steinbeck conveys this through the suffering created by Lennie’s disability and through the threats he poses on others. In the novella, Lennie kills multiple things including mice, a dog, and ultimately a woman. Not to mention he also assaulted another woman at previous jobs. Whether these actions were on purpose or not, Lennie caused conflict and apprehension wherever he went. Lennie’s mental disability also caused suffering for him and George decreasing their quality of life. George suffered because he couldn’t live a successful life due to his responsibility to take care of Lennie, and Lennie suffered because he was treated unequally and missed out on many of life’s experiences. Because of these multiple reasons, George had the right to kill Lennie, ultimately proving that a man should have just in ending another man’s life under certain…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    George did the right thing by killing Lennie and he did it for the right reasons not negative ones. Candy tells George that he should have killed his dog but he was being selfish and didn’t end his dog’s misery himself. "I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog."…

    • 637 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays