A Tough Decision In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Elyse Lemke

Period 1

A Tough Decision

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is the story of a journey of two workers who depend on each other, George and Lennie. George takes care of Lennie and stays by his side, and Lennie prevents George from becoming like all the other workers, lonely with nobody who cares about them. As much as it pains George, he has to kill Lennie. He knows that if anyone should kill Lennie it should be him, and not Curley because he'd make it as painful as possible. There is the option of trying to turn Lennie in to the police if Curley doesn't end up killing him, but then he would be admitted into an insane asylum. The final, but least likely, option is trying to escape, but then Lennie would have to be constantly

He wouldn’t just be put in jail, he would be facing murder charges and would be put into a mental institution, since he’s mentally ill. During this time, the mentally ill were not treated as people, but more like animals. When Of Mice and Men was published in 1937, many people didn’t understand mental illnesses, and that’s part of the reason George has to lie and tell the boss Lennie got kicked in the head when he was younger. This is supposed to draw sympathy from the boss, because he sees Lennie as a person in a tragic accident, not someone with a mental illness. Asylum’s in the 1930’s had few staff because of the lack of funding during the Great Depression. In addition, the patients were treated extremely poorly, and Lennie would be no exception to this. For example, one treatment used to treat patients was called electroconvulsive therapy. During the 1930’s, this was done while the patients were awake, and it consisted of sending powerful shocks through the patient to cause a seizure. However, since the shocks were so powerful and the treatment was done without anesthesia, many patients experienced memory loss and broken bones. Even Slim, who knows Lennie didn’t kill her on purpose, isn’t against killing Lennie because he knows if Lennie is caught, they’ll “‘lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage’” (97). Lennie

George would have to be looking over Lennie for the rest of his life, just waiting for Lennie to make another mistake or injure someone else. In just one week’s time, Lennie assaults a woman, kills a puppy, permanently disables Curley, and snaps the neck Curley’s wife. In addition to this, he almost attacks Crooks over a misunderstanding about George. Lennie never remembers these incidents and the consequences of them, so he isn’t able to learn from his mistakes. When Crooks is messing with Lennie and saying what if George doesn’t come back, Lennie starts to become upset and extremely worried. Lennie doesn’t understand that Crooks isn't being serious, and that he’s just trying to get a reaction from Lennie. He then starts to threaten and almost attack Crooks because he thinks something happened to George. Although nothing ever happens, Lennie could’ve easily injured or even murdered Crooks. Lennie knows if he ever does something bad, George won’t let him tend the rabbits anymore, and to Lennie, this is like the end of world. That’s what motivates Lennie to do what George says, and that’s what causes him to panic when Curley’s wife starts to scream. Lennie just wants to feel her hair, but as she starts to become frightened and yells at him, Lennis panics and grabs her harder until