'Of Mice And Men': The Line Between Mercy And Murder

Kellan R. Russell

Danielle Dueck

English 12

December 20, 2022

The Line Between Mercy and Murder

Internet writer, Mokokoma Mokhonoana, observes that “Some people are lucky to no longer be, and some are unlucky to still be, alive.” This quote perfectly represents the concept of what is known as mercy killing. In John Steinbeck’s 1937 novel, Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are two ranch hands living together, trying to make a stake for themselves. However, after Lennie, who suffers from a severe learning disability, kills a young woman, George kills him in what he perceives as an act of Mercy. A similar event occurs in the 1975 film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, based on Ken Kesey’s novel of the same name. In One Flew Over the

After Lennie accidentally kills the wife of a farmer working on the ranch with him, he flees to a nearby pond; a place George told him to go if he were to get into trouble. George, knowing the ranchers would shoot Lennie in the best-case scenario and lynch him in the worst, George meets him before they arrive, and he shoots Lennie himself. George, while believing his actions to be merciful, had many viable alternatives that would not have led to bloodshed. The simplest and most effective would have been to simply lead the ranchers away from Lennie, as George was the only other person who knew where Lennie was. Had he done so, Lennie would have been in no danger at all, thus there would be no need to kill him. Alternatively, George could have notified Lennie of the oncoming mob of ranchers, and escaped with him, given that he arrived at Lennie’s hiding spot several minutes before anyone else did. They would have had plenty of time to get a head start on the other men. In killing Lennie, George was not sparing the life of someone who was condemned, he was only saving himself the trouble of dealing with a young man who brought a lot of difficulty to George’s life. He saw Lennie as a burden, and he thought that killing Lennie would simply be easier than helping him escape and continuing to care for him. George’s murderous act against Lennie was not one born out