Tough Decisions In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men
Tough decisions in life are always necessary, right? Sometimes you don’t know if your decision is right or wrong you just have to do it. A great example of this is given in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Throughout the novel you learn all about George and Lennie and their friendship together. In the final chapter, George makes a life changing, or should I say “life ending” decision. Should he have done what he did? Lennie was, in fact, a danger to the people and animals around him. He never knew his own strength. He was too dimwitted to know up from down or left from right, so how could he be liable for his actions? You could argue that, for that reason exactly, Lennie never knew what he was doing so why shoot him? Well, Lennie’s anger
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If George hadn’t shot Lennie when he did, Lennie would’ve suffered a slow, painful death and no one deserves that. “He {Curley} worked himself into a fury. ‘I’m gonna get him. I’m going for my shotgun. I’ll kill the big son-of-a-bitch myself. I’ll shoot him in the guts. Come on, you guys.’” (page 96) Being shot in the guts doesn’t sound like the best way to go does it? I don’t think so. Given the choice of suffering or dying quickly, I would choose the latter. Really, what other choice did George have? Let his best friend who meant no harm suffer for something he didn’t mean to do? Slim said himself that George had to kill Lennie. Lennie’s fate was bad either way. He couldn’t have run away again or he’d starve or get eaten by coyotes. There was literally no happy medium at all, and who knows who else would get hurt if Lennie kept walking the streets. He had already killed hundreds of mice, and even a puppy! Lennie didn’t deserve a different fate, and he wasn’t going to get it.
I think it was really smart what George did. He saved his best friend in the most ultimate way. Giving him a less sufferable way to die. If I were Lennie, I know it would be amazing that someone did that for me. I liked the book, beginning to end and I highly suggest
If George hadn’t shot Lennie when he did, Lennie would’ve suffered a slow, painful death and no one deserves that. “He {Curley} worked himself into a fury. ‘I’m gonna get him. I’m going for my shotgun. I’ll kill the big son-of-a-bitch myself. I’ll shoot him in the guts. Come on, you guys.’” (page 96) Being shot in the guts doesn’t sound like the best way to go does it? I don’t think so. Given the choice of suffering or dying quickly, I would choose the latter. Really, what other choice did George have? Let his best friend who meant no harm suffer for something he didn’t mean to do? Slim said himself that George had to kill Lennie. Lennie’s fate was bad either way. He couldn’t have run away again or he’d starve or get eaten by coyotes. There was literally no happy medium at all, and who knows who else would get hurt if Lennie kept walking the streets. He had already killed hundreds of mice, and even a puppy! Lennie didn’t deserve a different fate, and he wasn’t going to get it.
I think it was really smart what George did. He saved his best friend in the most ultimate way. Giving him a less sufferable way to die. If I were Lennie, I know it would be amazing that someone did that for me. I liked the book, beginning to end and I highly suggest