Why

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Why

Why did George kill Lennie?

In this essay I am going to discuss the reasons why George kills

Lennie at the end of John Steinbeck’s novel ‘Of Mice and Men’. I will

consider the possibility that George kills Lennie to save him from a

painful death. I will also think about the whether George kills him so

he does not feel like Candy who felt very bad after letting a stranger

kill his dog. I am also going to give a brief outline of the story.

George was a migrant worker who travelled from farm to farm for work.

George cares for Lennie, who is his childhood friend. Lennie is

mentally disabled. Both George and Lennie dream that they could get

lots of money to enable them to own their own farm, so Lennie can tend

rabbits. George is a really responsible person. Lennie is a totally

different person, he can’t even make decisions for himself and he

relies on George to do it for him. Lennie finds it really fun to touch

soft things like rabbits and dogs. Therefore a farm would be a good

thing for him. This had got him into trouble when he had been wrongly

accused of rape when he had felt a woman’s dress. George had given

Lennie instructions to go to a place near the river and wait for him

if he got into trouble like that again.

The boss’s son accuses George of flirting with his wife, and ends up

fighting with Lennie because he thinks he is laughing at him. Lenny

relies on George to tell him to fight back and to stop fighting when

he had hurt the man, who is called Curly.

Slim gives Lennie one of his dog’s new puppies, but accidentally

Lennie kills the puppy by bouncing it hard. Curly’s wife finds him and

when Lennie tries to feel her soft hair she screams because he is too

rough. He struggles with her a...

... middle of paper ...

...and if he shot him she would of

understood why he did it and that if he didn’t do it then he would

just be in pain and would be beaten all the time and George wouldn’t

be able to do anything about it he wanted Lennie to be happy, not in

pain.

Lennie was a clear danger to himself and if he stayed alive and he was

a bit weird. Talking to the dog saying “now maybe George aint gunna

let me tend no rabbits, if he finds out you got killed”. Lennie is too

much trouble for everyone.

Although Lennie was annoying, the reasoning for killing him shows you

that George thought did the right thing to kill Lennie. It was best

that he was shot because he would of gone through so much suffering.

George couldn’t of let him suffer like that and he’d rather have

Lennie die quickly then a slow and painful death. George did this

because he loved Lennie. He didn’t hate him.

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