Title “My ultimate aim is to make euthanasia a positive experience” (Jack Kevorkian). Of Mice of Men by John Steinbeck shows has a very dramatic ending with the main character George, killing the other main character Lennie. George and Lennie are great friends, but it had to happen. This quote connects to what happened with George and Lennie because George did the best he could to make the euthanasia a positive experience for Lennie. George did this to Lennie as a friend, and he knew he had to do it because of Lennie's previous actions. The act of George killing Lennie was an act of euthanasia rather than murder. More specifically it is an act of non voluntary euthanasia. One important reason that shows George's actions of killing Lennie is a euthanasia is a very important reason. The reason is that Lennie can't really tell George that that he wants to die, but he actually does in a more indirect way. Lennie's mental state is very low and it would be hard for him to tell George directly and give his constant. …show more content…
This shows throughout the book with the many different mistakes Lennie makes. Lennie starts off by killing mice, then he kills a puppy and finally a woman! After Lennie kills Curley’s wife George responds by saying “I should of knew… I guess maybe way back of my head I did.”(Steinbeck 94). George knew it was gonna come to this and he probably also had a feeling Lennie was going to continue to kill more people or animals. Plus, when the character in the book; Candy asks who did it, George says “Ain’t you got anr idea?”(Steinbeck 94). That shows that George knew he was gonna have to do something about Lennie. George was going to have to do something about Lennie sometime, and after George killed a woman he knew there would be no other choice that to kill Lennie through non voluntary
One of the reasons why George should have killed Lennie is to keep him out of an institution. It is clearly not on the bright side for Lennie to be put in an institution. This is backed by Slim saying “…An’ s’pose they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good, George.”(pg. 97) Lennie would obviously be miserable without George anyway, his only kind friend. Without George, Lennie wouldn’t know a lot of things he does now, or what to do in situations. Lennie has one of the rare mentalities that always needs someone by their side. These are all good reasons that it would be a good thing for George to put Lennie away rather than in an institution.
George shoots Lennie because he sees what the other people on the ranch would do to Lennie. After asking Curley if he could not shoot Lennie, Curley tells George that, "'I’m gonna shoot the guts outa that big bastard myself, even if I only got one hand. I’m gonna get ‘im'" (50). This shows that the others on the ranch weren't going to consider that Lennie was disabled, and Curley would try to make his death very painful. This gives George a motivation to kill Lennie: so he could make his death as painless as possible. This makes the reader have sympathy towards George. Additionally, the result of George killed Lennie, who would be the closest person to George to die at his hands, leaves George devastated that he had to do something like that to his best friend. Even though it is the best option and if I were in that scenario, the thing I would do, it understandably still makes his feel heart-broken. Ultimately, the whole book has made me feel sympathy towards George, but the ending makes me feel so much
George wanted to be alone, away from Lennie because he could earn a lot more money without worrying about Lennie. George wants Lennie gone so he could live life without getting into so much trouble like Lennie does. When Lennie gets into trouble then they both get into trouble. George needed Lennie gone in general weather he had to kill him or
That ain’t no good, George.’”(Steinbeck 97). Because Lennie killed Curley’s wife, he committed a felony. George wanted Lennie to be thrown in jail at first. He wanted Lennie to be arrested because he thought it was the best thing for Lennie but then Slim told him it would not be good for Lennie. It would be bad for Lennie because Lennie would not understand his rights because he’s mentally challenged and locking him up in a cage would just hurt Lennie. George then realized he needed to kill Lennie so nobody would mistreat him. George is protecting others from Lennie.”’Lennie-if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before…’”(Steinbeck 15). George has been with Lennie for many years and he knows how Lennie will never learn and he will keep committing bad stuff. George knew something was going to happen at the ranch because Lennie has always done something wrong. George tried to prevent something from going wrong but he couldn’t. As a result he had to put down Lennie so he would not hurt anyone ever again. George felt the hard choice of killing Lennie was the right decision for George because Curley wanted to get his revenge, Lennie would be mistreated in prison and he was
Lennie began to grow furious at her for dying because of how George would react if he found out. George was left with no choice but to kill Lennie for his own
In the words of Jack Kevorkian “In quixotically trying to conquer death doctors all too frequently do no good for their patients’ “ease” but at the same time they do harm instead by prolonging and even magnifying patients’ dis-ease.”. His excellent quote shows one that mercy killing can help a person stop suffering with a prolonged death.In Stienbecks novella Of Mice And Men Lennie falls victim to his impulses and makes himself suffer and George suffer the concequences. George reveals how mercy killing is necessary in some cases because it stops suffering, prevents worse from happening, and may help society continue working.
George kills Lennie because he did not want to witness Lennie being hurt or killed carelessly, run off by in his own and not being able to take care for himself, and Lennie’s mental disorder will never change how Lennie reacts to certain situations. Many believe taking the life of another without consent is unacceptable but in certain situations like George’s, he has to decide due to Lennie’s mental disorder that was leading him into unpleasant situations. George is an admirable character who choose to protect and do justice to his distressed friend,
First, when Lennie sticks his head in the scummy water from the stream in the beginning of the book it shows his inability to think things through before he carries through with them. Another example includes when he grabbed the woman’s dress in Weed. He did not think it through when a normal fully mentally capable person would be able to think that grabbing a strange woman’s dress would not be appropriate. Similarly, he almost duplicates the situation except this time instead of finally letting go of the dress he accidentally killed Curley’s wife resulting in a worse outcome than the situation in Weed. Lennie is unable to think for himself in a safe and well opinionated manner, therefore, he needs someone like George to take care of him and prevent him from bad situations. However, the worse part about Lennie’s neverending trilogy of mistakes is that he does not learn from them. He makes the same mistake of killing multiple mice because he pets them too hard and never learns to be more gentle. George states in the novel ,”He’s awright. Just ain’t bright. But he can do anything you tell him.” (Steinbeck 22) This statement shows that though George is telling the boss how well he can work, he is also expressing how he doesn’t make decisions for himself and that he needs George to take care of him. George also says,” Yeah, you forgot. You always forget, an’ I got to talk you out of it.” (Steinbeck 23) This statement also portrays some of the reason he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. Lennie has a very difficult time remembering anything other than instructions that George gives him. George could not have just let Lennie go because he would not be able to make good decisions, nor could he take care of himself on his own, therefore George made the right decision to end Lennie’s
In conclusion, George killing Lennie was a murder because of lack of consent and Lennie was not suffering physically. In this society, people are scared of the unknown, and that is how they lived. No one realized what they were doing was wrong. But Lennie was just like everyone else, only different because of a small, mental setback. The characters did not seem to realize that Lennie believed in a future ahead of him, and that he had hopes and dreams just like them. Life is incredibly short, and no one should deserve
I think that George killed lennie because he wanted to help him and himself. All the guys wanted lienne dead because lennie had killed curley's wife and curley got all the guys so that they can kill lennie. George can’t protect him because lennie had committed murder. George didn’t want lienne to suffer in jail or get hanged. George wanted to do it himself because he didn’t want to have all the guilt and feel less because someone was going to do it for him and maybe show the guys that he didn’t want to kill curley’s.
After Lennie gets into the debacle with Curley’s wife, he runs to the oasis described at the beginning of the book. George fears the men will tear Lennie apart and murder him. He also knew he would be institutionalized, or “caged” if he survived the attack. He had the moral clarity that let him see that killing Lennie was the best thing for him. When George kills Lennie, it’s a kind of mercy killing.
An eight-year old boy walked in to his grandmother’s room to find her not breathing. He instinctively called 911, not knowing what his grandmother’s or mother’s wishes were. That should have been the end to his grandmother’s suffering, but it was not. In this instance, doctors insisted on keeping his grandmother on life support, despite his mother’s request and his grandmother was incapable of articulating her wishes. She didn’t want her mother on life support. Today in modern “democratic” medicine, physicians are suppose to serve and advise, and only in extreme situations of incapacities, emergencies, lack of available health care proxies, or patient’s waivers of decision making should they decide for a patient. Euthanasia should be the decision of the individual, not family, not government, and not the medical community.
Although the desire to give the most humane ending possible to a suffering individual is honorable, mercy killing is essentially murder. Merely excusing the fact that euthanasia is murder by arguing that it is implemented with good intentions is faulty reasoning. This would be analogous to condoning the act of stealing simply because it was done to relieve the suffering of hunger. Murder is a crime for a reason; it is the deliberate ending of a person 's life. Richard Huxtable, author of four books on euthanasia, advocates that, "...[life] should never intentionally be brought to a premature end" (58). In making this comment, Huxtable urges us to realize that utilizing assisted suicide can cut short one 's endowment of life. While it can be perceived as a compassionate alternative to prolonged suffering, the ethical considerations behind physician-assisted suicide demand careful
Humphry, Derek. “Euthanasia is Ethical.” Euthanasia. Ed. Carol Wekesser. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1995. 17-20. Print. Opposing Viewpoints.
In examining the different forms of euthanasia, it ultimately becomes clear that both voluntary and non-voluntary passive, or negative, euthanasia do not violate ethical principles as they act in such a way that they basically restore man’s right to death. This form of euthanasia “means discontinuing or desisting from the use of extraordinary life-sustaining measures or heroic efforts to prolong life in hopeless cases when such prolongation seems an unwarranted extension of either suffering or unconsciousness” (Russell 20). That is, it is an action that has the purpose of allowing death to occur naturally, whereby it becomes very difficult to criticize passive or negative euthanasia according to ethical and religious arguments. This form of euthanasia, although it can occur without ...