The Humane Death of Lennie
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck creates a humane friendship between two characters, George Milton and Lennie Small. This compatible friendship begins in their childhood when Lennie and George first meet because of the death of Lennie’s Aunt Clara, and George who is deviated from Society becomes basically a brother to him. Soon enough Lennie and George get kicked out of the brush and they begin to start a new lifestyle in Weed hoping to make money to be able to own their own farm. Everything begins to go downhill when Lennie ends up killing Curley’s wife who’s is the owner of weed. Lennie’s actions lead him to run away from weed and hid in the brush which Lennie and George had always premeditated to do …show more content…
He has always wanted to raise a voluminous number of rabbits and be able to take care of them on his own. George does not want Lennie to be aware that he is going to get shot so he decides to distract him by talking about what their life on the farm is going to look like. He does this by saying, “No Lennie, look down there across the river, like you can almost see the place”… “’An you get to ten the rabbits’ Lennie giggled with happiness”(105). If George did not say these things to Lennie, he could have fought back and hurt George or even kill him. Lennie also dies thinking of happy thoughts rather than dying thinking about something sad. George kills Lennie in the least painful way by shooting him in the back of the head. He wants Lennie to die in the most peaceful way and for him to not have to suffer. This shows George is very humane to Lennie’s …show more content…
George began to second guess his safety around Lennie when he began to hurt people around him. Lennie is described in the book as a “Huge man, shapeless of face,….. with wide, sloping shoulders, and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paw” (2). This tells the reader that Lennie is bigger than a normal human. Lennie doesn’t know the strength of his own body. People begin to realize this when Lennie kills the baby mouse his aunt is raising. Even though Lennie is ingenuous and doesn’t mean to cause any harm, his strength takes over his body and he doesn’t know how to handle it. Lastly, Lennie makes his biggest mistake by killing Curley’s wife by the power of his own strength, as stated in the book, “She screamed then, and Lennie’s other hand closed over her mouth and nose… Lennie had broken her neck… I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing” (95). After this tragic event George new that he had to make a humane decision in killing Lennie to prevent him and others around him from killing
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck creates a humane friendship between two characters, George Milton and Lennie Small. This compatible friendship begins in their childhood when Lennie and George first meet because of the death of Lennie’s Aunt Clara, and George who is deviated from Society becomes basically a brother to him. Soon enough Lennie and George get kicked out of the brush and they begin to start a new lifestyle in Weed hoping to make money to be able to own their own farm. Everything begins to go downhill when Lennie ends up killing Curley’s wife who’s is the owner of weed. Lennie’s actions lead him to run away from weed and hid in the brush which Lennie and George had always premeditated to do …show more content…
He has always wanted to raise a voluminous number of rabbits and be able to take care of them on his own. George does not want Lennie to be aware that he is going to get shot so he decides to distract him by talking about what their life on the farm is going to look like. He does this by saying, “No Lennie, look down there across the river, like you can almost see the place”… “’An you get to ten the rabbits’ Lennie giggled with happiness”(105). If George did not say these things to Lennie, he could have fought back and hurt George or even kill him. Lennie also dies thinking of happy thoughts rather than dying thinking about something sad. George kills Lennie in the least painful way by shooting him in the back of the head. He wants Lennie to die in the most peaceful way and for him to not have to suffer. This shows George is very humane to Lennie’s …show more content…
George began to second guess his safety around Lennie when he began to hurt people around him. Lennie is described in the book as a “Huge man, shapeless of face,….. with wide, sloping shoulders, and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paw” (2). This tells the reader that Lennie is bigger than a normal human. Lennie doesn’t know the strength of his own body. People begin to realize this when Lennie kills the baby mouse his aunt is raising. Even though Lennie is ingenuous and doesn’t mean to cause any harm, his strength takes over his body and he doesn’t know how to handle it. Lastly, Lennie makes his biggest mistake by killing Curley’s wife by the power of his own strength, as stated in the book, “She screamed then, and Lennie’s other hand closed over her mouth and nose… Lennie had broken her neck… I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing” (95). After this tragic event George new that he had to make a humane decision in killing Lennie to prevent him and others around him from killing