Of Mice and Men Of Mice and Men is a book written by John Steinbeck in 1937. The book Of Mice and Men is about two men named George and Lennie. George is a smart but smaller man, whereas Lennie is very big and strong but has a mental disability. They find work at a ranch but soon find themselves in a dangerous situation when Lennie has accidentally killed the wife of Curley, who is their boss’s son. Curley vows to kill Lennie, but before he is able to do so George chooses to take the life of his friend himself. By doing this, George ensures that Lennie dies in the most compassionate way possible. For this reason, it is believed that it is justifiable to kill Lennie in the situation presented. Lennie is described as acting like a child. He loves to touch soft things and thinks about everything in a very simple manner. He is very passionate about things that are close to him. There are some things that he cannot process very well because the situation is too complicated. This leads to Lennie becoming very frustrated, which in turn brings aggression out of him. This aggression can be very bad because of Lennie’s immense strength. His strength along with his mental disability and short temper can put Lennie in bad situations. An example of Lennie’s uncontrollable strength, along with his childish mindset, would be when Lennie accidentally kills his puppy because he failed to realize that he could kill it so easily. The climax of the story where Lennie kills Curley’s wife is a major example of Lennie’s ignorance to how easily he can lose control. These actions make Lennie very dangerous to himself and everyone around him. George wanted to make sure that everyone was safe from Lennie. As his friend, he felt the best way to deal with the problem was to kill Lennie himself. Another reason that George killing Lennie was justifiable is that if George had not killed Lennie himself, the group of guys with Curley would have made his death much worse. Curley even says, “I’ll shoot him in the guts!”. This would signify a slow, painful death which is so much worse than what George did. Curley probably would have taunted Lennie or yelled at him in a fit of rage because he was so angry. These last words would have made his death more painful physically and mentally. George made sure Lennie was in a happy place when he died by telling him his favorite story. George’s reason for killing Lennie was to ensure that Lennie would not have to suffer, and would die by his best friend. If George had let Curley kill him, then Lennie would have been killed by strangers with bad intentions.
The situation with George and Lennie is a very good example of the idea of euthanasia. They are put in a difficult position when Lennie accidentally killed Curley’s