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Is killing a best friend ever justified? The answer is yes, killing is justified if there is a good purpose for instance, someone is feeling terminally ill and they are suffering. George killing Lennie is justified, he was saved from a far worse situation, George did not want to make the same mistake Candy did, Offing him before he hurts more people.Of mice and Men, by John Steinbeck.
Lennie was saved from a situation he wouldn’t want to be in, a situation even George could not help him. After he accidentally killed Curly’s wife, Lennie knew he was in trouble. Lennie remembered what he was supposed to do when he got in trouble go to the brush by the river bank. When Curly found out Lennie killed his wife he used this chance to kill Lennie
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When they were in Weed Lennie scared a woman because he was holding onto her dress and not letting go because he was scared. When Lennie is scared he does not know what to do so his first reaction is to sit there and continue to do what he was doing. He’s completely unaware what he is doing is wrong. "Oh, so ya forgot that too, did ya? Well, I ain't gonna remind ya, fear ya do it again." (Steinbeck)
George is concerned that Lennie will get him in trouble again. It’s very clear Lennie constantly gets in trouble.
While killing is most certainly wrong, there are some cases where it may be necessary. For instance, cases of euthanasia people want to die because they are terminally ill. People terminally ill are suffering, and they don’t want to live on life support for the rest of their lives because they can’t do anything anyways. They feel as if there is no purpose because they sit on a bed all day.
In short, the killing of Lennie was justified, and the reasons are very clear. Firstly, Lennie was saved from a bad situation he wouldn’t want to be in. George also didn’t want him to someone else’s problem. Another thing is, George did not want Lennie to hurt someone else. Lennie took a life on accident, not knowing what he is
George and Lennie were lifelong friends and had varying personalities even from the start. Lennie thought about how his Aunt Clara said he should have been more like George. At the time when the story took place, the two men were travelling together, and had been for some time, working and then moving on to search for the next job they could find. They were like many other men in search for work, except it was rare for men to travel together. George felt a need to take care of Lennie because he was somewhat slow. George was an average man of the time. He was a good size, nice, but firm, and he had aspirations to be more than just a nomadic laborer. Lennie, on the other hand, had always been a little different. He was big, goofy, clumsy, but sweet. They were also both good workers. George was concerned with working and getting his money before they got into trouble and had to leave camp. Lennie was the one who normally started the trouble. He was a hard worker and lived to appease George, but he got distracted easily which angered George. George told about how they would own a house and a farm together and work for themselves. Lennie loved to hear the story and think about the possibilities, even though nobody knew if any of it was a possibility. George and Lennie's differences in part led to George's inclination to kill Lennie. Despite their dissimilarity, the two men needed each other probably more than they realized.
Why would you kill your best friend that has been with you through thick and thin? Lennie Small was killed by George Milton at the end of the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place....With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us” (Steinbeck 13-14). That quote basically describes Lennie and George's relationship to each other. Murder is something done with anger and to end a person’s life that should have not been ended. George had all the aspects of a murderer, he basically planned the murder of Lennie Small. George was not even accused for killing Lennie, everyone was happy and that is not right. Also George should have let Lennie escape to the cave and let Lennie live freely. Being said, George in all right, should be considered a murderer and not a savior.
Is killing someone bad if they were protecting them from someone else? What if that person was going to die anyway? is that a reason to kill them? In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George kills Lennie because he thinks he absolutely has to in order to stop future incidents. It seems like George killing Lennie was a sign of mercy. Lennie and George were friends and Curley was going to kill Lennie. Furthermore, people would think about the killing as a way out for George. He should be punished for killing Lennie because he broke his promise to Lennie’s aunt Clara by not protecting Lennie, He wanted to be alone since the beginning of the book, and Lennie had a lot to offer to society.
Although Lennie was unattractive and has the tendency of accidental violence, compassion was still something readers had for him. Steinbeck constantly reminded us that he has a mental disability which automatically makes someone feel pity for him. Additionally he was ignored and made fun of by other characters, “Blubberin’ like a baby! Jesus Christ! A big guy like you”(Steinbeck 10). Him getting in trouble was beyond his control because of his mental disability which is something else that makes a reader feel sympathetic for him. Also, the readers are solicitous towards Lennie because of how much he looks up to George. This is portrayed when Crooks asks Lennie what he would do if George never came back, “Well, s’pose, jus’ s’pose he don’t come back. What’ll you do then?”(Steinbeck 70). Because of his inability to comprehend information, he got extremely defensive and said, “George is careful. He won’t get hurt” (Steinbeck 70). This scene is crafted in such a way that it automatically
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
One of Lennie's many traits is his forgetfulness. He easily forgets what he is supposed to do, but he somehow never forgets what he is told. An example of how Lennie is forgetful is when he has the mice in his pocket and when he went to pet them they bit his finger. “Lennie picked up the dead mouse and looked at with a sad face. When they bit him he pinched them, and by doing that he crushed their heads” (page 5) . This is important because he knew that if he squeezed their heads they would die, but since he is forgetful, he squeezed anyway. Another example of how Lennie is forgetful is when he grabbed Curley's hand and crushed it. “ Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it. Lennie squeezed on until George came running in shouting ‘let go’. The next moment Curley was on the ground wailing while he held his crushed hand” (page 64). This event is important because Lennie had held on, not knowing what to do next, until George told him what to do. A final exampl...
Was George to harsh or too fast with his decision to kill Lennie? Ever since Lennie was born he has needed help “living” and it started with his aunt Clara. When his aunt Clara died Lennie needed someone to help him with his everyday life and someone that could be there and tell him what to do. Lennie starts to travel with a good family friend George. In the book “Of Mice and Men” there is many cases where Lennie just “holds on” to George. George realizes in the end of the book Lennie has done too much harm and needs to essentially go away. George then shoots Lennie in the back of the head because Lennie couldn't live on his own if he were to run away from Curly and the rest of the gang of workers coming after him. George did the right thing because Lennie was unstable and George knows lennie didn't mean to harm anything. He doesn't know his own strength and George really wasn't qualified to help Lennie learn that he is powerful beyond measure.
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,
Due to child like qualities, Lennie is a person which would be easy prey and a vulnerable person. Lennie is a vulnerable person who is quite dumb. His has an obsession for touching soft thing and this will often lead him in to trouble. But poor Lennie is an innocent person who means no harm to anybody. When he and Curley get into a fight Lennie is too shocked to do any thing. He tries to be innocent but, when told to by George grabs Curley’s fist and crushes it. George is Lennie’s best friend and Lennie does every thing he tells him to do as demonstrated in the fight with “But you tol...
George shouldn’t go to jail for killing Lennie, even though Lennie was completely innocent. Lennie is illiterate and ill-informed. He killed Curley's wife and many animals and to keep people safe from him would be hard. He might of had to just stay in one place all day alone, that isn't good for a human. Lennie's death could save many lives.
Lennie’s unintentional mistakes resulted in the sudden end for him, but was done in the best way possible. As Lennie would’ve been subjected to a life of loss, running and suffering, George correctly made the decision in euthanizing him. While contemplating whether or not to euthanize him, George knew he very well could but it wasn’t the easiest decision to make on his part. If George wouldn’t of made the decision he did, Lennie would’ve had to run for the rest of his life with no account of what happened or what to do due to his mental illness. He would’ve been seen as a criminal and hunted down like animal which is inhumane and cruel. Although his mishaps weren’t meant to be as extreme as they were, the consequences were foreshadowed throughout
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
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.
Lennie has a mental disorder and because of this has the brain of a child. This can cause him to not comprehend a situation which can get him and George in lots of trouble. Such as when he got them kicked out of a job in Weed when Lennie “pet” a girl’s dress. Or when Lennie got into a fight with Curley. The most severe problem Lennie has ever caused though was when he accidentally killed Curley’s wife. All Lennie was trying to do was to pet the soft hair of Curley's wife when he accidently snapped her neck by grabbing tight on the hair and not letting go. “Lennie’s big fingers fell to stroking her hair...She jerked her head sideways, and Lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on...And she continued to struggle, and her eyes were wild with terror...and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.” (5.88-89) In the end of the book, the only way for Lennie to be truly free was when he would go to heaven. So George made the decision to shoot him, but not before making sure Lennie’s last moments on Earth were happy
Killing your own best friend would be an event that would haunt you for the rest of your life. In the book, “Of Mice and Men”, there is a special connection between Lennie and George, that in the end, is destroyed. From my own point of view, George's decision to shoot Lennie was for Lennie's own well being. The situation was unimaginable, but, if I were in the same position as George, I would have gone through with it for Lennie's sake. Not everything in this story should be so “black and white”, the circumstances change everything up completely, you have to think about the consequences of what would have happened to Lennie if he didn’t have George, and, how the other “options” George could have taken would have eventually played out.