In the 1930s, a large amount of the United States population had some type of mental disability. The Colorado Territorial Prison, also used as a facility for the mentally ill, held approximately 1,000 people at one time (Abbot). During that time period, they started to experiment with treatments for those patients, including Lobotomy, which consisted of drilling a hole into one’s head and remove a section of their brains. They also used other types of deadly therapy to try and help patients. In the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the setting takes place in the 1930s, and one of the main points in this book include how people were treated. One of the main characters, Lennie, suffered from a mental disability, but was not put in a facility …show more content…
This being said, the killing of Lennie was not a murder, but a mercy killing by George for fear of the well-being of his friend. In addition, Lennie’s death was a mercy killing from George, because he knew if he did not kill him, Lennie would suffer horribly, much worse than he already had been. Similar to the situation that George and Lennie were in, a man killed his wife because she was in extreme pain. As explained by the New York Post, “‘She hadn’t verbalized anything, but I think it’s fair to say that for the first time he was making some connection with her, and what he saw was agony, desperation, and pain.’ Mr. Adamson said. ‘And he knew he had to do something’”(Qtd. In Rivera). In the article “Ohio Shooting of Ailing Wife Raises Questions about ‘Mercy Killings”, it is focused on a man killing his wife after she had fallen ill and was suffering. This is similar to Lennie and George’s situation, because neither victim had any consent, but it was obvious what George and the woman’s husband had to do. Since it is clear that both of them had been and were going to be in pain, it is evident that George and the husband did