Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is a story that shows how weak people can be in the sense of loyalty. This loyalty, defined as putting strong will and strength into a relationship in all cases is being put into a light of making choices. This means you have to make the decision between Loyalty and "Friends", which also can be described as people that are together but basically are lonely for themselves and that decision-making is important.
If you watch the whole novel as a representative book of American Culture, you strongly can see that basically every person is afraid of going in depth. How did Curly react on Lennie's act of killing his wife? In my opinion he acted very raging and upset. He made the decision right away to look for Lennie and kill him ("Curly wanta get him lynched", p. 94). I would take this as an example of not reacting in-depth and looking at all aspects of an issue. But what does this have to do with George's Motives to kill Lennie?
Be honest: How many choices did George really have? For stating the situation: A person called Lennie is committing an unwanted crime on a loved person that has the affect of making the husband raging. Lennie hides, and the husband comes after him with a rifle with the will to kill him for this act. George finds it out and is automatically involved with this situation although he hasn't done a thing. And now he has to make a decision for someone who is not able to understand that he can't make any.
The first possibility for George would have been, as it also happened in the book, to kill Lennie before he is being killed by Curly, the husband of Curley's wife. But there the question of moral comes up where you ask yourself it that really makes sense to kill somebody you love. In this case it definitely does. George thinks all the other situations through and sees that this is the only valid one. He has to think of himself too: He doesn't want to live a life of persecution, and his friends are also important to him. This seems to be a very weak argument, but watch the other possibilities.
One of the other possibilities would have been not to care of it at all and just let Lennie be shot by Curly, who is all about threatening him in that minute.
Curley and the others were looking for Lennie and wanted to exterminate him; they were angry and hated Lennie. If Curley would have found Lennie, he would have shot him. But that way, Lennie would have died afraid and sad. His death would have been very violent.
He tells Candy to wait until he has left the barn to yell as though he had just found the body. He immediately heads for the bunker and tells Candy to “give me a couple of minutes” (95). This allows him to have enough time to get the gun be in his possession and be back in time to follow the men into the barn. He knows he must head straight for Lennie after everyone has seen Curly’s wife’s body, they came from the north so George hopes Lennie has remembered to hide in the brush. When the guys ask George where Lennie could have gone he claim Lennie “would of went south” (97). He knows that if the men search in the south it will give him the opportunity to kill Lennie without any pain. Afraid that George might be up to something Curly tells George to follow them, “George moved slowly after them” (98). He moves at a slower pace than the rest of the men to create distance so he can eventually head north to the brush where Lennie
Killing someone is never right. No one pointed a single finger to George for killing Lennie. They all thought it was ok since Lennie killed Curley’s wife, it is not ok to kill a person. All of them went out to drink after Lennie was dead. George did not even care, Lennie trusted George with everything. Lennie would probably be arrested for killing Curley’s wife, but he did not deserve to be killed. Lennie was a special person, he did not know his own strength. He never meant to kill Curley’s wife. George knew that but decided to kill Lennie anyways. That is not the definition of a true friend. No one accused George of anything, but instead were happy that Lennie ended up being
George felt though an extremely difficult choice, killing Lennie himself was the right decision. Curley was gonna get his revenge and George did not want that because he did not want Lennie to die painfully. “‘I’ll kill the big son-of-a-bitch myself. I’ll shoot him in the guts.’”(Steinbeck 96). When Lennie killed Curley’s wife, Curley wanted to give him the most painful death. Curley wanted to shoot Lennie in the stomach which wouldn’t kill you at first, Instead you would bleed out slowly and painfully. George didn’t want Lennie to suffer so he knew he had to get to Lennie before Curley did and kill Lennie the fastest and least painful death he could which he did. Lennie would be arrested and thrown in jail for
George realizes in the end of the book Lennie has done too much harm and needs to essentially go away. George then shoots Lennie in the back of the head because Lennie couldn't live on his own if he were to run away from Curly and the rest of the gang of workers coming after him. George did the right thing
George kills Lennie because he did not want to witness Lennie being hurt or killed carelessly, run off by in his own and not being able to take care for himself, and Lennie’s mental disorder will never change how Lennie reacts to certain situations. Many believe taking the life of another without consent is unacceptable but in certain situations like George’s, he has to decide due to Lennie’s mental disorder that was leading him into unpleasant situations. George is an admirable character who choose to protect and do justice to his distressed friend,
In fact, near the ending of the story, he unintentionally snapped Curley’s wife’s neck trying to quiet her (91). Failing to recognize his own strength, Lennie accidentally took her life, proving that he was perilous. By shooting Lennie, George prevented Lennie from accidentally injuring or killing anyone ever again. His verdict was correct in view of the fact that he sacrificed his friend’s life with the intention to protect the lives of others. Furthermore, George’s decision protected Lennie. As a punishment for his deeds, The workers wanted Lennie executed. George realized this and told candy, “Curley’s gon’ta wanta get ‘i'm lynched. Curley’ll get ‘im killed,” (94). In consequence of killing Curley’s wife, Lennie unknowingly put himself in harm's way. Curley’s motive for wanting to kill Lennie was spite and revenge. So, instead of allowing Lennie to be murdered alone and afraid, George took matters into his own hands and made sure his friend died knowing he was cared for and full of hope. Through it's ironic, George’s choice protected Lennie from the malice of others, thus keeping him unafraid and unharmed. However, others may believe
The issue of loyalty is embodied in the character of George. He is an intelligent man who could make a successful living for himself on his own. He chooses to stay beside his friend Lennie. George can never get a steady job to fulfill his long-term goal of having his own farm. The first job that Lennie and George have together goes well for a while. Eventually Lennie ruins everything that is going good for them. Lennie sees a pretty dress that a girl is wearing. Without thinking about what he is doing, he goes up and grabs the dress to feel the nice fabric. This scares the girl and she tells the boss. Soon the whole town is after Lennie. This is the perfect time for George to start a new life, without Lennie. However, because of his loyalty to Lennie, he chooses to help Lennie escape from the town. Lennie needs George to survive. It is this that propels George to make the sacrifice that he does. After Lennie kills Curley’s wife, George knows that this is the end for Lennie. No matter what, someone will eventually kill Lennie. And if Lennie gets away this time, there will be another time, and eventually the inevitable will happen. He truly loves Lennie, so he shoots Lennie painlessly in the back of the head. Lennie dies with the happy thought of the dream of the farm they want to own some day.
George did not ask Lennie if he wanted to be killed. Mercy killings are usually a patient requesting the action, so it’s usually not done without consent like the situation in this book. Also, there were many other options for Lennie like him living in the mountains as he mentions. “‘George gonna wish he was alone an’ not have me botherin’ him.’ He turned his head and looked at the bright mountaintops. ‘I can go right off there an' find a cave,’ he said. And he continued sadly, '--an' never have no ketchup--but I won't care. If George don't want me...I'll go away. I'll go away'"(Steinbeck 100). The evidence proves that there were other options than killing Lennie. He could have lived in the mountains with or without George. They could have hidden in the brush somewhere far away from Curley, and none of these actions would’ve been necessary.
Lennie cannot be held fully responsible for this incident. Curly was the one who started beating the daylights out of him in the first place. When you get in a fight with a big guy like Lennie you win either way. If you win everyone will praise you and if you lose they will feel sorry for you. Curly started picking on Lennie in the first place because he was laughing when Candy said, “Hand full of vaseline,”(62) in a disgusted manner. Because Curly had an ill-tempered personality, he would be enraged quickly. His eyes flew right past Candy and onto Lennie, the one person in the room he could win against. Curly bluntly asked Lennie what was so funny and started an argument. Before you know it, Curly was beating the daylights out of Lennie. When Lennie cried out for George’s help, he yelled, “Get him Lennie. Don’t let him do it,” (62). George was encouraging Lennie to stand up for himself and that is exactly what he did. Lennie latched on to Curley 's fist and would not release. George kept on encouraging Lennie to hold on. When it had gone too far, the men tried to get Lennie to release Curley 's fist, but he would not bother. George slapped him in the face again and again until he finally saw Curly’s white and shrunken face that he let
After Lennie gets into the debacle with Curley’s wife, he runs to the oasis described at the beginning of the book. George fears the men will tear Lennie apart and murder him. He also knew he would be institutionalized, or “caged” if he survived the attack. He had the moral clarity that let him see that killing Lennie was the best thing for him. When George kills Lennie, it’s a kind of mercy killing.
Many people believe that George was wrong for killing Lennie, but if you know what George was thinking in that situation you would have done the same thing.I believe George did the right thing by killing Lennie because if you think about the situation they were already in if he would have let him live in that situation would have got even worse than it was. Let's say he didn't kill him does that mean that Curly and the other guy wasn't going to? No, so that means that they would have to go on the run again, find new guys again and that dream that they both share would be even harder to reach because of an event that keeps occurring. This novel gives the reader a chance to see an event that happens in the world today, no i'm not saying it's
They tell her to leave them and also to leave Lennie alone, because they know that Lennie cannot defend himself (80). When George and Candy find out what Lennie has done to Curly’s wife, they do not want to say anything about it. Candy tells George, that Curly will kill Lennie. But George will not let anyone hurt Lennie (95). Lennie trusts in George, and believes everything that he is telling him.
“I killed my best friend,” was the exact thought that hovered in George as he watched his best friend, Lennie, recumbent, cold, and still, on the grass by the riverbanks. In the book of Mice and Men, George faced the dilemma of knowing that he had killed the one he loved the most. Though it was no accident, it was for the good of Lennie. If Lennie had been allowed to live, he would only face the worst of what life has to offer. So instead of having to watch his best friend in pain, George took the initiative to end all of the cruelty of the world and send Lennie to a better place. Therefore, George was justified in killing Lennie.
George is pretty much in charge of Lennie and is the brains of the operation. He thinks very big of himself and thinks he's got the rest of his life planned out. He wants to own a farm someday with Lennie. He really likes to cuss and get drunk on Friday night. He always says to Lennie "If you weren't around I would have a job by now," but he really cares about him. At the end George puts Lennie out of his misery and shoots him. He said "it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life."