Mercy Killing In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Mercy Killing: A quiet, painless death. A mercy killing is how Lennie died in John
Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. A novel that tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant workers during the great depression in California. They hope to one day attain their shared dream of settling down on their own piece of land. Lennie Small is a mentally disabled but physically strong man who traveled with George. His dreams were to be “living off the fatta’ the lan” and being able to tend to rabbits. George Milton on the other hand was a quick-witted man who is friends with Lennie. George looks after Lennie and dreams of a better life of owning a ranch. George is pretty much Lennie’s conscience. For example
George tells Lennie “if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush. They are fleeing from their previous employment in weed where they were run out of town after Lennie's love of stroking soft things resulted in an accusation of attempted rape when he touched a young woman's dress.” So do you think mercy killings are ever acceptable? George is a loner. Without Lennie, George realizes that being alone is not good he explains it to Slim when he says “I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain’t no good. They don’t have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin’ to fight all the time.” On the other hand, George resents how Lennie inhibits his ability to live freely and selfishly. In the first few pages of the book , George’s resentment is clear when he says “I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I could so easy and maybe have a girl.” It is this ambivalence that makes George’s role dangerous for Lennie.
Lennie relies on George to help him make good decisions and to keep him out of trouble.
Most of the time George keeps Lennie out of trouble. He finds them work, talks for
Lennie when they have to deal with authorities and protects Lennie from the bullying of other workers. Like a parent he patiently repeats things for Lennie. He repeats instructions he repeats warnings, he repeats explanation, and he even repeats stories for Lennie’s enjoyment.
George often gets tired of his role and becomes frustrated with Lennie. His frustration frequently comes out in angry explosions when Lennie does something to get in trouble with people around them. During one part of the book, he yells at Lennie saying “you can’t keep a job and you lose me ever job I get… an that ain’t the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out.” Another time George says “seems like I can’t go away for a minute.”
At other times, he is ambivalent towards Lennie and his dependence on him. When
Curley attacks Lennie, George watches with little concern. He stays out of the situation even after Lennie begs him to stop Curley. Finally, George sics Lennie on Curley. George knows that
Lennie can destroy Curley and he lets it happen, seemingly unconcerned by the consequences of his decision. After it is all over, he wonders if they will lose their job over the incident. A person with well- developed conscience would have never let the situation get that far out of control and certainly would not have compromised Lennie.
Strengths and weakness both contribute to Lennie’s death. The best way to
understand
Lennie’s disability is to think of a small child. Like a small child, Lennie has some idea of what is right and wrong and he understands that there are consequences. However, Lennie ability think through these issues is limited. Like a child who relies on his parents to help him make good decisions, Lennie relies on George to help him make good decisions. George was right to kill Lennie because if he didn’t the mob was and Lennie would have done more “bad things.”