Essay On Mercy Killing In Of Mice And Men

We can all argue back and forth whether George killing Lennie was wrong or not. But the fact of the matter is—there was no escape. George heard “a

George saved Lennie by shooting him with a gun in the back of the head. It was fast and painless, but Curley had other plans for Lennie, “We oughtta let ‘im get away. You don’t know that Curley. Curley gont’ta wanta get him lynched. Curley’ll get ‘im killed”( Steinbeck 94). Candy knows that Curely will lynch Lennie if he finds him. George knew he had to find Lennie before Curley. George decided to shoot Lennie because he knew Lennie would have either been locked up in jail his entire life, or have been beaten up and lynched by Curley. After George shoots Lennie, Slim reassures George that he did the right thing, “You hadda, George. I swear you hadda”(Steinbeck 107). George needed Slim to let him know that it was the right thing to do. Slim gave George closure, because George was in awe. George realized he did the right thing after he followed Slim out of the

Terri Schiavo didn’t have to die by euthanasia, so why should others. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George, the main character travels with Lennie, another main character. In the book towards the end George is left with a terrible decision, after Lennie does something bad and runs away. The rest of the men find out he has accidentally killed the boss’ daughter- in-law. Curley is ready to kill him. But George makes the decision to mercy kill Lennie, to stop him from getting brutally killed by Curley. The novel makes it seem like George did the right thing, but this is not true because mercy killing is a way in which no one should die.

Some argue that no one, no matter the circumstances, is justified in taking the life of another. They state that George had no right to take Lennie’s life because it was morally wrong. They say George executed Lennie because he is not an officer or a member of the court. Some

Any good person does not want to watch a friend to be hurt, and George is no exception. George is most worried for Lennie when Curley says ‘“i’m gonna shoot the guts outta that big dumb bastard myself, even if i only got one hand.”’ (steinbeck 48). this is when Curley, Slim and Carlson are getting together to find Lennie and hurt him and kill him. George thought

It's been four months, the doctors don't know what else they can do. You don't want to accept it but, she tells you to. Your daughter, your own flesh and blood, pride and joy, is begging you to stop the pain and suffering with her big cloudy doll eyes. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, one of the main characters, George, had come upon an unthinkable situation, where he best friend, Lennie, murders the wife of Curley. George faces the decision to weather let Lennie live, and suffer from Curley's vengeance, or to end Lennie's life permanently, and save him from suffering. The novel makes it clear that mercy killing, the act of putting an animal or human down painlessly without suffering, is a human way to show compassion towards

First and foremost, George has to constantly continue to repeat rules to Lennie because Lennie is undisciplined. Like, after Slim gives Lennie a puppy Lennie brings the puppy into the bunkhouse with him even though George told him he was not supposed to. For example, after Lennie comes into the bunkhouse John Steinbeck writes that George " reached down and picked up the tiny puppy from where Lennie had been concealing it against his stomach." (Steinbeck) In this quote it shows that Lennie disobeyed the rules that George has set with him so he could get the puppy this means that Lennie is undisciplined because he broke the rules even though he knew that there were specific rules that were not supposed to be broken. consequently, George has to repeat himself many times and treat Lennie like a child by fixing the things that Lennie messes up and disobeyes the rules. So George was justified in his decision to kill

According to www.dualdiagnosis.org, in the 1930’s, “Techniques that were used on the mentally ill included insulin-induced comas, lobotomies, malarial infections, and electroshock therapy.” The novel, Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, describes the story of two migrant workers named George and Lennie, and their adventure during the Great Depression. Lennie is a man who is challenged with mental retardation. During the Great Depression, this was not an acceptable thing in society, so George acts as his caretaker and has to cover for Lennie. Eventually, George and Lennie find themselves working on a ranch where they meet new people and find themselves in trouble. I think that George did the right thing by killing Lennie. If George would not have killed him, Lennie would have been taken to the mental hospital and treated badly, if Lennie was killed by anyone else, George would have had regrets, and Lennie was at risk of getting himself and George into more trouble.

The decision of killing should not be looked upon as criminal. George does not have a cruel heart nor does he take pleasure in killing Lennie. George wants what is best for Lennie and he takes the time to set up a nice, peaceful conversation on a topic of interest to Lennie. He instructs Lennie to ?look down there acrost the river, like you can almost see the place? (106). He reassures Lennie that everyone will treat him pleasingly.

While mercy and murder do have some similarities there is one huge difference, mercy killing has consent, murder does not. Sometimes it is as clear as day if it is murder or mercy. One of these times was when a twenty nine year old “Brittany Maynard fulfilled her final wish… purposely ending her own life on her own schedule…” (Briggs). This is very different from what happens in Of Mice and Men By: John Steinbeck where George kills Lennie without his consent. In Of Mice and Men George and Lennie are best friends that go on the road with each other looking for jobs. They end up working at a ranch and made some friends and some enemies. Throughout this story it is shown that Lennie is mentally disabled and is obsessed with petting soft objects,

In John Steinbeck 's classic novella, Of Mice and Men, one of the predominant themes that govern the story and characters in the book is friendship. One of the ways in which friendship plays a large role is in the area of mercy killing, which affects the main characters as well as the supporting ones. The two major mercy killings that occur in the book are those of Carlson 's killing of Candy 's old dog, and of George 's killing of Lennie. In both of these examples, the killer kills the other out of mercy and love, not for the usual motives of hatred, rage, anger, etc.

Which leads to George having to put Lennie down. In this section of the book George just put Lennie down and he was told by Slim “You hadda, George. I swear you hadda” (John Steinbeck 107). This is the first reason as to why he needed to be euthanized.

George took it upon himself to take Lennie’s life because he knew if he didn’t do it himself, Lennie would have faced harsher consequences. Readers think that George mercy killed him but others think it is a non-legitimate and horrible act. It is thought that any kind of killing is murder but others think that this is an act of kindness.

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley. an’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, for promis’d joy!” These famous words from Robert Burns’ poem “To a Mouse” inspired John Steinbeck’s title for Of Mice and Men. Just as it is useless for a mouse to try and protect its home from the blade of a plow, so are the human efforts and dreams for the unattainable in the face of natural and economic calamities. In the midst of the Great Depression, a man like Lennie who is incapable of thinking logically for himself renders it nearly impossible to survive without causing any trouble. George knew of this and tried to prolong the inevitable, but eventually had to face the ultimate price of taking away the life of the only friend he’s ever known and had. Mercy is defined as compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. Although mercy is the ideal side to choose, some readers think that George chose to kill Lennie because Lennie because Lennie is constantly in trouble and George was sick of solving all of Lennie’ problem. From murdering Lennie out of selfishness and murdering Lennie out of mercy, the basis of the debate on the intent of

Lennie was a dangerous character all throughout the book, and his quick, easy execution was the best solution possible. When the search for Lennie begins, George tries reasoning with Slim to which Slim replies, “An’ s’pose they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good, George” (Steinbeck 97). This line from Slim shows that any other discipline for Lennie will just end in Lennie living a life of