How Did George Kill Lennie Justified In Of Mice And Men

Is putting someone out of their misery the right thing to do, or it it wrong to kill someone? This is what George Milton is faced with in John Steinbeck’s Novella, Of Mice and Men. George was forced to kill Lennie at the end and some readers thought that George’s action were unacceptable. However they did not realize that George had to kill him to protect him from others that would do harm to him. Therefore George’s decision to kill Lennie is justified because he was doing it to protect him from the other men that would want him to suffer, he needed to do it himself or he would feel guilty about not killing him, and that Lennie would mess up again and that because of Lennie’s actions, the dream would never come true.

The first reason that George”s actions were justified is that he knew that Lennie was going to mess up again because he does not know about his strength. When George and Slim looked at the dead body of Curley’s wife Slim said “Maybe like that time in Weed that you was tellin’ about”(Steinbeck,97). Slim’s comment shows that both him and George knew that Lennie would do something like the time in Weed again even if he did not mean to. Given at the end of the book that Lennie has killed a lot of mice a puppy and a woman, George knows …show more content…
Some readers think that George made a bold and harsh decision to kill Lennie himself and get rid of him for good. However, George made that decision because he wanted protect Lennie from the other men. “But Candy said excitedly, ‘we oughtta let ‘im get away. You know that Curley. Curley gon’ta wanta get “im lynched. Curley’ll get ‘im killed.’”(Steinbeck,95). When Candy says that, George realizes that he needs to be the one to kill Lennie because if he does not kill him, then the other men will make him suffer for what he