Examples Of Euthanasia In Of Mice And Men

The Science of Euthanasia (Of Mice and Men)

Is Killing always a cruel or savage action? Can Killing ever be be considered a Good or merciful action? For Humans, taking life has always been on the thin barrier between Good and Bad. The reason why there is such a thin barrier is because it is immoral or savage to kill people out of anger or for no reason. At the same time it is moral/alright to kill a criminal, or to take someones life in war. The same applies to animals. It is immoral and cruel to kill an animal for no reason, but alright to kill them for food. In John Steinbeck’s Novel Of Mice and Men, the topic of death is brought up quite often, whether it is mercy or murder.

Taking life can be merciful depending on the situation at hand.

This as well could be argued as immoral. Why would George just kill Lennie? However, Lennie killed Curley’s wife. He would face 3 consequences. He would either get shot non-fatally multiple times by Curley, he would go to prison, or end up in an asylum, van Scherrenburg 2 where he would be chained and treated like an animal. Slim eve says in the story: “An’ s’ppose they lock him up and strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good George” (Steinbeck 97). Slim also says “But Curley’s gonna want to shoot ‘im (him)” (Steinbeck 97). Curley also expresses his anger by saying “I’m gonna shoot the guts outta that big bastard myself….” (Steinbeck 98). George shooting Lennie would be merciful because it is the quick way out for Lennie, from the law, from the primitive mental medical science of the time, and from Curley. Lennie didn’t even know what hit him. With all killing, there is merciful and unmerciful. As mentioned before, there is instances of both merciful and unmerciful killing in this

The first instance of this can be seen very early in the story, with the mice. Lennie likes to feel soft things such as mice but “They was so little” (Steinbeck 9). Lennie goes on to say “I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead-because they was so little” (Steinbeck 10). This is cruel to the mice because they all end up dead, in fear. They can’t escape, and when they try to bite in defence, they get their heads crushed. The method of killing is painless, but the mice were perfectly healthy, and scared. Where is the mercy?

Another Instance of cruel killing is Lennie’s puppy, given to him by Slim. In the words of Lennie, he bounced the puppy, and that killed it. “I didn’t bounce you hard” (Steinbeck 85). Lennie, not knowing his strength, killed the puppy, and it could’ve had a chance at life if he was a bit more careful with it. The puppy may have felt getting dropped, and died from shock (though the book does not say). The puppy was healthy and fine, and just like that, Lennie unknowingly took its