Mercy Murder In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The deep green pool of the Salinas River sat still as the sun was setting. The molted sycamore trees provided a nice, cool, shade to the riverbank where all the animals could relax. All was calm until suddenly, a tall man came clomping down to the river, got a quick drink, and sat there waiting. A while later, another man, this one short, came and they talked. They talked about their future plans, hopes, and wishes as the sun was disappearing over the horizon. As the taller man was sitting looking over the water, the other had a gun, and held it to the back of the other’s head, and pulled the trigger, murdering him. This occurred in John Steinbeck's book, Of Mice and Men. Lennie, the taller man, was mentally disabled, and so George, the short man, thought it would be acceptable to kill Lennie just because

This is why the killing of Lennie is a murder, not a mercy killing. In the book Of Mice and Men, Lennie did not need to be murdered, especially without his consent. He was living a happy life, was not terminally ill, and was not facing a life-threatening disease. In the article, Millionaire admits to ‘mercy killing’ of autistic son, a mom had an autistic son who was apparently getting abused by his biological father. The mom then thought that she should kill him. The article stated, “‘Miss Jordan, did you give yourself and your son an amount of drugs that you believed would take your life and his?’ ‘Yes, I did,’ Jordan testified” (Qtd. In Rosenberg). This shows that Jordan planned out killing someone ahead of time, like George did, and she knew that she would kill him before it happened. She killed her son with drug overdose, and she did not even ask for her son’s opinion. In the article, Ohio Man’s Shooting of