“‘We might,’ he said. ‘If we could keep Curley in, we might. But Curley’s gonna want to shoot ‘im. Curley’s still mad about his hand. An’ s’pose they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good, George,’” Slim speaks to George, helping him make up his mind about a tough decision (Steinbeck, 97). John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men tells about two migrant workers, Lennie and George, who travel together during the Great Depression. One of the men, Lennie, is mentally disabled and often causes unintentional trouble that is hard to get out of. George feels as though Lennie is making his life difficult on himself and that he will suffer. To prevent Lennie from further misery, George makes the hard decision of taking his life from him. …show more content…
A mercy killing, or euthanasia, is painless killing of someone who is in despair, which Lennie is. Brittany Maynard, a strong supporter in mercy killings, believes that ending the hurt rather than letting it take over “is less suffering and less pain,” and that it is an opinion that “[provides] a lot of relief” (Briggs). Rather than letting Lennie live in a way in which is causing harm to himself, George shoots him, his reason being for keeping him safe. If George were to let Lennie go, Lennie would have to experience awful pain. George knows that he can not let that happen to Lennie, so he spares him