Death In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Words: 771
Pages: 4

Of Mice of Men Essay The question of whether or not a person should be able choose to die has been a hot topic in today’s society. Many people have a strong opinion on both sides of the issue. Not only is it a big topic in real life, but it is a big topic in the book, Of Mice and Men. There has been a lot of talk of whether George should have assisted Lennie in death. However, this paper argues that under certain circumstances, people should be able to assist others in their death. It is wrong that a person in pain should stay in pain, if there is something that can be done to end their suffering.

The first reason why people should be able to assist others in death is that it would be merciful. Take for example Candy’s dog in the book Of Mice and Men.Candy’s dog he was old and it was hard for him to walk. The dog did not have any teeth left and he had really bad arthritis, which made him stiff (Steinbeck 44). The men told Candy he needed to put his dog down, but Candy didn’t want them to. Candy had his dog every since he was a puppy and Candy had grown so close to him that he couldn’t imagine life without him (Steinbeck 45). They continued to tell Candy that if he shot the dog then the dog wouldn’t be in anymore
…show more content…
Take for example, at the beginning of the book. The pair was escaping from their previous job. What happened was Lennie saw a girl in a red dress and he wanted to touch it because it looked pretty. When the girl started screaming Lennie got scared, but didn’t let go of the dress (Steinbeck 41). The girl then went to the police and told them that Lennie raped her and then there was a manhunt for Lennie, in which the people were going to kill him (Steinbeck 42). Lennie was constantly misunderstood, which led him to be scared of