Lennie In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

George, a quick witted caretaker of his disabled friend Lennie was a worker during the great depression. Lennie, a big built man with some sort of mental abnormality who worked during the Great depression as well. During this time and age every man was fulfilled with loneliness but somehow these two men stuck together like glue. Because of Lennie’s unnamed mental disability that allowed him to be extremely violent without realizing it in John Steinbeck's, Of Mice and Men, George was faced with an extremely hard decision. He carried Lennie's fate in his hands. Set during the Great Depression, during this time many men leave their homes and look for work elsewhere. That is what Lennie and George did. They had previously been kicked out of their

George had told Lennie calmly as ever “Look across the river, Lennie, an’ I’ll tell you so you can almost see it” (Steinbeck 105). Before George could fire the fatal shot he wanted Lennie to be at peace. He didnt want Lennie to be scared. This goes along with the claim that George killed Lennie out of mercy because if Curley would have been there, he for sure would have tortured Lennie. Lennie’s death could have been cruel and inhuman and agonizing but it was peaceful like death of John Wise’s wife in Ohio. “Moments later, Mr. Wise quietly slipped into Room 3201 of the intensive care unit, where his wife of 45 years had been for a week. He put a gun to her left temple and pulled the trigger” (Rivera). Wise’s wife had suffered from a triple aneurysm and was in constant pain. Even though Lennie did not feel pain like Wise’s wife's pain he was causing pain. Killing the mice and the dog by snapping their necks all lead up to the killing of curley's wife. George's decision to end his life like Wise’s decision protected him from further pain and further turmoil. George made the right decision in protecting his lifelong companion by ending his

But if someone is in constant pain, they can not think for themselves. They can not eat, they have to be constantly assisted by a healthcare professional or a family member. What is the quality of life? Why keep someone alive when they know they are ultimately going to die. Take Donald Harvey for example “He calmly told of how he poured half a vial of cyanide into Powell’s feeding tube and flushed the rest of the poison down the toilet” (Bovsun). This weakens the theory that mercy killing is murder because Harver ended the suffering of a patient who “had been in a motorcycle accident in July 1986 that landed him at Cincinnati’s Daniel Drake Memorial Hospital with massive head injuries. For months, he was unresponsive, suffering seizures, embolisms, pneumonia and bedsores” (Bovsun). It is very hard to imagine a life where being able to do the things that people do on a daily basis like shower is impossible. So why go on if you are going to die a painful