Mercy Killing or Murder: The Death of Lennie Small On a mild afternoon, with the summer breeze blowing sotto voce over the trees, the sun “...had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun...” (Steinbeck 99). This is what the brush looked like before a mercy killing materializes in Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck. George Milton, an intelligent and swift fellow, shoots his long-time companion, Lennie Small, to prevent harm to him and everyone around him. Lennie is very strong, but he is also simple-minded and naïve. George and Lennie had been traveling with each other for a long time, and were migrant workers: they crossed the country in search of work. Lennie often …show more content…
A pharmaceutical millionaire, Gigi Jordan, had a son who was diagnosed with autism, Jude. Her husband, ended up abusing Jude, and she explained that “...Tzekov had shoved feces in his mouth, stuck needles under his fingernails, and stabbed him in the hand repeatedly in addition to sexual abuse” (Rosenberg, “Millionaire admits to ‘mercy killing,’” NY Post). Jordan also had Jude go into a number of painful procedures to try and rid him of his autism. She consequently realized it was wrong, because it was a form of torture for Jude. Sequentially, Jordan made the choice to give Jude a drug that would kill him, to put an end to his abuse. Comparable to George shooting Lennie, because everyone had wanted to kill him and punish him for killing Curley’s wife. George shot Lennie in order to prevent Curley from doing any more harm to Lennie, so he died in peace. It can be argued that since Lennie did not give consent to George shooting him, it should be considered murder, though Lennie would never have understood why George would shoot him, because he is way too naïve to make that kind of decision. Altogether, George’s shooting Lennie was out of mercy, completely because it was only to prevent any more harm done to Lennie and because he could not make the choice