I gotta. We gotta.’ And George raised the gun and steadied it…The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger” (Steinbeck 106). When George kills Lennie he is once again left alone. It may not seem like a sacrifice, but now George will lose the only pal he ever had.
Of Mice and Men is filled with characters such as this, which are unable to find a way out of their lonely lives. The loneliness in this story builds and builds and never is allowed to escape. By never allowing its escape, Steinbeck effectively forms a solid backing for the characters and events in his novel. Lennie's loneliness chiefly stems from the fact that he is both mentally undeveloped and very big and strong. His retardation sometimes causes others at the ranch to shun him; even to the point of thinking he is "cuckoo."
Dear George, An ambiguous question arises on whether you did the right thing by killing Lennie at the end of the story. Some people believe that you did it out of friendship and as a mercy killing, while at the same time others believe that you did it for his own wellbeing. In my personal opinion, I would have to say that you killed Lennie simply out of love. In support of my opinion, I have found many perceptible facts throughout the novel that prove it is a legitimate theory. In the following paragraph, I further describe my reasoning in depth.
Lennie would have been driven so insane he wouldn't have been the same person anymore. In a mental asylum during those times the patients were just given treatments and smashed into cells where they become so lost there was no chance of helping them. Lennie didn't deserve that; either way Lennie would have died, but this way he died peacefully; he felt no pain. That is what was best for him. The pain that was in Lennie's future if George hadn't had shot him was too much for him.
The only way to stop Bob -the Soc Johnny had killed- from drowning Ponyboy would be to do something that would completely draw the Socs away. In the spur of the moment, Johnny used his switchblade against the Socs in order to potentially save his friend’s life and prevent himself from getting hurt. In fact, Johnny might have not even had the intention to kill Bob in the first place, but the fact that he had to act quickly under pressure could have led to the fatal conclusion that took place. Outnumbered and drunk, the Socs wouldn’t have been thinking straight and could’ve done something extreme. The only conclusion that was probably running through Johnny’s mind was to do something drastic by using his switchblade, as it was the only thing he could use against the big numbers against him and Ponyboy.
For example, one of the biggest differences between the book and the movie was the ending. In the book, the ending was very emotional when George was about to kill Lennie. George was very hesitant when he was trying to kill Lennie. He would hold the rifle to his head and take it down and stuttered several times before he actually pulls the trigger and kills Lennie. This created a sad and emotional ending because it shows George did not want to kill Lennie but had no choice.
Surely the sacrifice of one person, (who had initially come up with the idea of drawing lots to see who would be killed and eaten), is better than the almost certain death of all five men, as it was very likely the man who was killed would have subsequently died along with the other four a few days later anyway had he not been sacrificed. Although the argument made by Foster J. is one 1 agree with, a weakness is that it argues with law N.C.S.A. (N.S.) § 12-A ‘whoever shall wilfully take the life of another shall be punished by death.’ Surely though, this law is to prevent the loss of lives, whereas the actions committed by the men were actually preventing the loss of many lives with just
We all know about todays code of law. It’s morally right and unfair, but back then it wasn’t They had a set of laws called the Hammurabi’s Code. Hammurabi’s Code was unfair and unjust because it was cruel to humans, there’s more reasonable punishments that could have been made that were morally right, and they seemed arbitrary for the rule that was broken. First of all, humans are animals that have the ability to feel aka emotions. According to Law 218, a mans hands would be cut off if he accidentally killed a man during surgery, even if he didn’t mean to.
No one should ever have to go through this but in this case, George was forced to take the life of his dear friend. George kills Lennie because if he doesn’t, Curley will torture him or he will rot in jail for murdering Curley’s wife. Lennie, being someone as innocent as he is, can’t handle that. Some may say that George was only trying to get Lennie off his back and that he shouldn’t have ended Lennie’s life but he had to kill him. He didn’t want to kill him but he needed to in order to save his friend from suffering.
George putting him on a good note was probably the best idea for Lennie because if not Curley could of tortured him. The novel demonstrates the great depression in America and what could happen with a disability like that, No its not Lennie’s fault that he has such a disability and can’t help it, but for the reason he should have been well looked after. Now because of that he has been resulted as dead because of the torture that could have