The Role Of Suffering In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Could you imagine waking up one day with an incurable disease, or waking up in unbearable pain? Would you want to die with mercy or have to live your life with the unbearable pain? In the novel Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck, George one of the main characters, has to face this with his best friend Lennie, who has murdered the wife of a fellow rancher Curly. So George has to make the decision of letting Lennie face Curly, or to end Lennie’s life and save him from the torture Curly would give him. This novel shows that mercy killing is the right way to end the suffering of a loved one that has unbearable pain. George has been with Lennie ever since his aunt died so George decision on killing Lennie which stopped his suffering was the right decision. Sadly Lennie has had problems ever since he was a little kid, he’s not bright and has trouble with letting things go. So after his aunt died George became his guardian and has looked out for him ever since. “I should of knew,” George said hopelessly. “I guess maybe way back in my head I did,” (Steinbeck 94). The reveals that George knew Lennie would do something and that he wouldn’t be able
to save him. “Lennie never done it in meanness,” he said “All the time he do bad things but he never done one of’em mean,” (Steinbeck 95). This shows the Lennie has done things but he doesn’t mean any harm he just freaks out and they happen. So this paragraph explained that Lennie has never been well and if something didn’t change then people would continue to get hurt. Euthanasia has been used for years to help people die with mercy so that they don’t have to deal with that unbearable pain.
Mr.Williams said “It’s not a choice between life and death. It’s a choice between different ways of dying.” (Preiss). This means that living and dying isn’t a choice the choice is made by how you live and how you die, also it’s not anyone else’s choice but your. “One of the questions people should be asking is what life is?” Said Steve’s “Sometimes there might not be specific answers. Life may not be just having a heart pumping, but to flourish. What should happen when you can’t flourish?” (Gross). This means that what’s the point of someone living if they can’t flourish in their life or do anything besides hurting. But at the end of the day it depends on the patient and if he or she wants to
suffer. Some people say that killing seven if they’re in pain is still killing and taking someone’s life from them. “The temptation to view elderly or disabled family members as burdens will increase, as will the temptation for those family members to internalize this attitude and view themselves as burdens,” (Anderson). However I say that ending someone’s suffering and letting them choose if they want to die is better than living in miserable pain. I believe that ending the suffering of a loved one is way better than letting them die with that horrible pain. Could you imagine waking up with an incurable disease, or waking up in unbearable pain? Would you want to die with mercy or have to live you life with that miserable pain. So George made the right decision for lennie he choose not to sit and watch his friend get in trouble and being in pain. People need to be more like George and not think about how they are going to hurt about losing that loved one but how the person with the disease or disability feels everyday and how they have to get up and how they still get up everyday. We as the world need to stop and think about how they feel and not about how we're going to feel once they are gone, we need to give them everything they want and everything that they desire. So I believe that mercy killing/euthanasia is the right decision every time it's brought up into questioning.