Of Mice And Men Mental Illness Quotes

George and Lennie were best friends for a long time, more like brothers. Lennie is about as bright as a 2 watt bulb, so George couldn’t really get mad at him when he accidently killed Curley’s wife while feeling the softness of her hair. “…’I ain’t mad. I never been mad, an’ I ain’t now. That’s a thing I want ya to know’”. The two had planned a future together—a future in their own dream ranch, a ranch where no trouble would ever bother them. “’You…an’ me. Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from ‘em’”. Then after he tells him about the rabbits that Lennie is so fond of, he shoots him in the back of the head where he knows it will not hurt him, and Lennie will not know what hit him. This is the peaceful alternative to what Curley had in store for him. Curley's exact words were "shoot the bastard right in the guts." George's euthanizing of Lennie makes the mentally incompetent Lennie die with dignity. Had Curley gotten to Lennie first, Lennie would have suffered. This shows you how much George cares for Lennie, no matter what he does or the crimes he commits. He’d always be there to help Lennie get right back up to his feet, make him forget all his worries, and move on like nothing happened. I strongly believe George was the right person to kill Lennie, and made the right decision in doing so, rather than to let him suffer in the hands of Curley.

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.

In John Steinbeck, novella Of Mice And Men we are introduced to George, the brain and Lennie, the muscles. As we travel beside the two men we are introduced to a dreary and often cruel world full of death and broken dreams of the early 1930. As the story progresses, we see how Lennie’s inability to control his own strength grows more and more troubling .This would lead to George having to make a heartbreaking decision about whether to shoot Lennie, sparing him from a slow and painless death. The debate that spawns from his decision is whether it was ethical to take someone else’s death into one’s and if it's murder or a case of a mercy killing. The book makes a compelling argument against George murdering Lennie because of his mental disability , the way he did not take proper care of Lennie, and should George shot Lennie?

He constantly gave us hints by using Lennie’s poor memory as an excuse, “Yea, you forgot. You always forget,” And forget he did, he forgot all about George’s warnings about Curley’s Wife, but due to George’s persistent nature Steinbeck emphasized on the fact that Curley’s Wife was danger. Only things Lennie could remember where he went for rabbits which added a greater emphasis to his want for soft things, finally the connection between Curley’s Wife and Lennie is made when she mentions her hair is soft. Finally, it is called the mercy killing of Lennie because Steinbeck had foreshadowed it through the killing of Candy’s Dog. Throughout the book Lennie is often described as having an animalistic nature, so when Carlson appeals to Candy on killing his dog, “Well, you ain’t bein’ kind to him keepin’ him alive,” Since the dog was going to die anyway, Candy understood this and let Carlson shoot the dog with his gun.

“ I am who I am because of the choices I made yesterday.” (Eleanor Roosevelt) In the beginning of the novella, written by John Steinbeck, it was clear the type of friendship that George and Lennie had developed over the years. George Milton is the “Caretaker” or “Owner” of Lennie Small, who could be compared to a dog because of his morality of life. Life without George for Lennie would be a true test of survival.

After Lennie killed Curley’s wife George said to Candy “Maybe they’ll look ‘im up an’ be nice to ‘im” (Steinbeck 94). There are other things to do to Lennie. George should have just let the cops find him and lock him up or something. Curley got the guys that work on the ranch to go find Lennie. George said “The poor bastards nuts. Dont shoot ‘im. He didn't know what he was doin’”(Steinbeck 98). George didn't want them to kill Lennie. George tried explaining to Curley that he didn't know what he was doing and that he didn't mean to do that to Curley's wife. It's clear that George killing Lennie was not right to do even though George thought it was right to keep his promise to Lennie's aunt. It's not right to kill

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Lennie’s mental illness and large size causes him to get into trouble. Lennie doesn’t know what is right and wrong because of his mental problems. He causes deaths and pain unintentionally wherever he goes. When he pets living creatures, he kills them, like the mice, the puppy, and Curley’s wife. Lenny is kneeling over a dog that he killed by petting it, when Curley’s wife comes in.

After George realizes that the mob would torture Lennie, he does something so brave that most people wouldn’t have been able to do, he shoots his friend. The author of this story shows that mentally-ill people were treated lower in social status and were misunderstood. Back then and even today people were prisoners to their own status. An example of this is Curley’s wife and because she was a women, she wasn’t treated with much respect. Since she was put on the back burner, she went out seeking attention even if it would cause trouble for everyone.

A piece of foreshadowing to this event is where Candy’s dog is killed by Carlson, and it makes Candy feel miserable that he couldn’t kill the dog himself (Steinbeck 400). Of course, George spent a lot of time with Lennie and knew he was very capable of harming others if he wasn’t careful.

In the short story by John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, George wisely chose to end Lennie’s life. The main reason why Lennie’s death was reasonable. His death was done painlessly. George did this by distracting Lennie, saying there was a rabbit far in the distance. By doing this Lennie could die in the most peaceful way. Similar to Candy’s dog, they both were soon to die, however, George wanted the best for Lennie. Curley convinced Candy to let his old and distressed dog die without pain. However, Candy was soon later depressed, as he believed he should have shot his dog himself. If George was not there to end Lennie’s life, He likely would have been tortured and held in prison. In a matter of fact, the others on the farm began to form mobs,

Soon after Lennie unintentionally murders Curley’s wife, the workers on the rach go hunting to gain revenge. The narrator writes “I’m gonna shoot the guts outa that big bastard myself, even if I only got one hand. I’m gonna get ‘im” (98). After that, George quickly goes to search for Lennie and shoots him himself. We can interpret why he did this using the many parallels and foreshadowing from earlier in the novel. For example, when Candy said, “I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog” (61). This correlates to George’s situation. He listens to Candy’s advice and does not want Curley to shoot Lennie, therefore he shot him himself. We can understand that George wants Lennie to die happily because if he had shown up with the other workers to kill Lennie, Lennie would have felt betrayed. A final point of analysis is that Lennie’s death was the cause of destruction for any dream George and Lennie had together. Lennie’s death not only devastated the plan because they lost the money from his share, but also devastated them emotionally to not continue the

When Carlson finally shoots Candy’s dog, his pain and suffering are over. Readers also think that euthanasia is supported when George shoots Lennie at the end of the novel. Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife by violently shaking her neck because he undermined his own strength during an attempt to get her to stop yelling at him. Some readers argue that euthanasia is endorsed because George shoots Lennie in order to save him from a more painful death by Curley, who promises to “shoot the guts outta that big bastard (Steinbeck 95).” When George finds Lennie hiding in the brush, their safety spot in case Lennie was ever in danger, George makes the decision to end Lennie’s life because he knew Lennie wouldn’t be able to survive in prison without him.

() Above all, the issue that has caused the novella to be challenged so extensively is its use of euthanasia. Steinbeck challenges the reader as he introduces this topic. One must ask if the painless killing of Candy’s dog and Lennie are justified. At the end of the novella, George is forced to kill Lennie before his enemies can reach him. Article #2 states “It’s a tragedy in which the bond between two men is so strong that it leads George to the impossibly difficult and ultimately loving act of sparing Lennie a violent and painful execution at the hands of men who despise him” (Brown 3).

Although mental illness is widely accepted and generally understood in today’s modernized society, this awareness did not always exist within the bounds of civilization. Due to this lack of understanding, mentally ill people would often be regarded as deranged and dangerous. Throughout Steinbeck’s novel, “Of Mice and Men,” Lennie demonstrates many qualities associated with mental illness, making him an intensely misunderstood and often violent character, eventually forcing George to bring Lennie to his inevitable demise.

Over the years, people have argued wether euthanasia is right or wrong. In the novel Of Mice and Men Lennie accidentally killed Curley’s which resulted in the execution of Lennie. But the one to kill him in the end was Lennie’s best friend George. But what George did was not murder he killed Lennie because Lennie would have suffered, he would have died happy, he had a history of killing, and he was a burden to George.