When George Milton shoots Lennie Small, his simple-minded companion, in order to protect him from the punishment he will face upon accidentally killing Curley’s wife, it raises the question was George justified in killing Lennie? Lennie Small is a large man that due to his mental disability fails to recognize his own strength. Lennie is completely reliant upon George Milton. George takes care of Lennie and constantly gets Lennie out of trouble. George promises to deliver Lennie the farm of his dreams where Lennie will be able to tend to the rabbits and live off of the land, this dream becomes even more distant as the two have to flee town to town in order to protect Lennie from the consequences of his actions. George can no longer protect Lennie
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In Of Mice and Men when George and Candy are contemplating what to do about Lennie killing Curley’s wife Candy says this about Curley, “You don't know that Curley. Curley gon’ta wanta get ‘im lynched. Curly’ll get ‘im killed.” (94) We know that when Lennie is confronted with his wrongdoings he panics and cannot comprehend the severity of his actions only that his dream of tending to rabbits becomes farther and farther away. If Lennie was to be confronted with the hoard of people all searching for him, he would undoubtedly be overwhelmed by the mass amounts of chaos. The brutality he could face would be infallible to him. When Candy uses the wording lynch pertaining to Lennie’s possible death it pulls that connotation of that of a callous hanging. Depending on the type of hanging that was to be performed the person being hung could die instantly but if a more likely suspension type hanging was to occur the person being hung would slowly strangulate which could take up to twenty minutes. In the manner of gunshot wound where Lennie was killed instantaneously by the bullet he would have felt little to no pain as the bullet would likely move faster than his pain receptors would have time to send the signal to his brain. Lennie died happy with his best friend not surrounded by a chaotic mob but that of a serene river
In Of Mice and Men when George and Candy are contemplating what to do about Lennie killing Curley’s wife Candy says this about Curley, “You don't know that Curley. Curley gon’ta wanta get ‘im lynched. Curly’ll get ‘im killed.” (94) We know that when Lennie is confronted with his wrongdoings he panics and cannot comprehend the severity of his actions only that his dream of tending to rabbits becomes farther and farther away. If Lennie was to be confronted with the hoard of people all searching for him, he would undoubtedly be overwhelmed by the mass amounts of chaos. The brutality he could face would be infallible to him. When Candy uses the wording lynch pertaining to Lennie’s possible death it pulls that connotation of that of a callous hanging. Depending on the type of hanging that was to be performed the person being hung could die instantly but if a more likely suspension type hanging was to occur the person being hung would slowly strangulate which could take up to twenty minutes. In the manner of gunshot wound where Lennie was killed instantaneously by the bullet he would have felt little to no pain as the bullet would likely move faster than his pain receptors would have time to send the signal to his brain. Lennie died happy with his best friend not surrounded by a chaotic mob but that of a serene river