Argumentative Paper, of Mice and Men

In the end of the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, one of the main characters, George, killed his friend Lennie because he thought it was what’s best for Lennie. Lennie had gotten in trouble on the ranch by accidently killing the wife of a man named Curley. After this event Lennie went into hiding like he was told by George if he were to get in trouble. George then finds Lennie and calms him down and shoots him in the head when he knew Lennie was happy and calm by talking about his dream. There are arguments on whether George made the right decision to kill Lennie at the end of the novel. The reasons for George to kill Lennie outweigh the reasons for George to let Lennie live, this could be a result of people concluding that George made the right decision in the end to kill Lennie. Through the text in the novel reader could infer what the characters were thinking by evaluating the actions taken. Although Of Mice and Men is written in a third person objective point of view, the structure of the novel made it easy to infer the thoughts of the characters. With killing Lennie, George knew that Lennie would not be in danger by the men on the ranch. Many of the workers on the ranch teamed up with Curley after finding Curley’s wife dead by the fault of Lennie and they were going to hunt him down in revenge. If Lennie were to live, both George and Lennie would be living on the run because they agreed to stick with each other no matter what. If Lennie were not to be killed by George and one of the men on the ranch went after him, Lennie could become too scared and could possibly kill someone else in the way the scene with Curley’s wife unfolded. Lennie did not understand the strength he’s capable of when he becomes frightened. For example Curley’s wife was struggling and he accidentally snapped her neck when we was trying to calm her down. If one of the men on the ranch went after Lennie he could possibly hurt someone else while trying to defend himself.