Death In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Everyone will look death in the eye at some point in their life; however, it is not up to another individual to be the judge of their death. In Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, a man by the name of George Milton made the decision whether someone should live or not. Lennie Smalls has a mental handicap and is best friends with his caretaker, George, living during the Great Depression. Lennie is very forgetful and lacks the normal comprehension of a human being, which eventually gets him killed. George Milton decides to end Lennie’s life in order to save him from much pain and suffering in the future. This is an example of an immoral “mercy killing”. George should not have been the judge for Lennie’s life; thus it was wrong for George to determine whether Lennie should have lived or not. No one can make the ultimate decision whether someone should live or die. In a bedroom one night, Gigi Jordan and her severely autistic son, Jude Jordan were conversing as Jude exclaimed, “Dad bad! Dad bad! Dad bad,” (Qtd. In Rosenberg). It is clear that Jude Jordan was starting to articulate words as he was never able to do in the past. If Jude was starting to say words at a young age, it is easily possible that he could have started to articulate full sentences as he grew. Jude Jordan may have been able

Lance had to take care of his wife as she was miserable. Maxine Anderson’s son was absolutely devastated when he heard the news, “This man has destroyed every aspect of my life. Every day that he has spent in a cell, I’ve spent in a cell in my own mind” (Qtd. In Serna). This mercy killing was not the right thing to do because it destroyed the lives of others. Just from one decision that this man made, another person had to suffer possibly for the rest of their life. When someone decides to selfishly kill another to end their suffering, they often do not think about the suffering of other