George's Decision To Kill Lennie In Of Mice And Men Analysis

In the novella, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, George’s decision to kill Lennie at the end of the novel was justified. George and Lennie were best friends, and have been since they were little. They got ran out of Weed(the old farm they used to work at) for harassing a girl and not letting her go. He was just scared from her screaming and kicking. He didn’t mean to harm, or scare her. And then about a year later when Lennie accidentally killed Curley’s wife, the whole farm was after him. George shot him in the temple of his head for a quick and painless death. Lennie had to be killed because he didn’t know his own strength. And he was too dumb to realize what he was doing. Also Curley and Carlson would’ve tortured Lennie and then killed

One piece of evidence that supports this claim is from “Ohio Man’s Shooting Of Ailing Wife Raises Questions About ‘Mercy Killings.” One quote is “...meant only to end the suffering of his wife, Barbara, 65.” This relates to Of Mice and Men because she was going to die anyway and he wanted to end her suffering. This is exactly what George wanted for Lennie. If he didn’t kill him Curley would’ve killed him and then he would’ve died without dignity. There are two reasons Curley wants to kill Lennie. The first reason is because he is a big guy, and Curley hates big guys. The second reason is because Lennie killed his wife. It states in “Of Mice and Men” that “Curley gon’ta wanta get ‘im lynched. Curley’ll get ‘im killed.” George chose for him because he wasn’t mentally capable of choosing for himself. He also didn’t want to see him die in such a horrible, cruel, suffering

She ends up buying and taking pills that will end her suffering before she’s in too much pain. She wants to go out as a strong person with dignity, not as someone suffering in a hospital bed. The text quotes “Who has the right to tell me that I don't deserve this choice? That I deserve to suffer for weeks or months in tremendous amounts of physical and emotional pain?” Lennie wasn’t able to realize this with his low mental capacity, but George understood it and decided to make the choice for him. He saved him from a brutal, endless amount of suffering and pain. As I mentioned before this isn’t the first time this happened, so who’s to say that it won’t happen again? George must be tired of running and Lennie probably was too, but just not capable of expressing it. Another quote in the text “My Right To Death With Dignity At 29” states, “I quickly decided that death with dignity was the best option for me and my family.” She knew that her death with the pride she still had left was preferable to dying a little later while suffering. This relates to Of Mice and Men because George wanted Lennie to be happy and still hold onto his pride when he died. He made sure Lennie didn’t feel like he was trapped with no way