Of Pain And Suffering In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Of Pain and Suffering; Of Love and Compassion Sometimes so-called “mercy killings” can be devastating, and cause nothing but misery; other times, it is the best possible option. In John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, George is the best friend of the mentally disabled Lennie. The pair sticks together as migrant workers during the 1930s Great Depression. When Lennie accidentally kills a woman at their most recent location, Lennie is on the run with a fuming, vengeful Curley on his tail, who wishes Lennie a slow and painful death. George made the correct decision by ending the life of his very best friend, Lennie, in order to save him from further pain and suffering.
George was right in his decision to kill Lennie, because if he had not, many detrimental things may have happened to Lennie. A similar situation to George’s was Gigi Jordan’s decision. Her autistic son was being abused by his father, and she claimed that the dad had “shoved feces in his [the son’s] mouth, stuck needles under his fingernails, and stabbed him in the hand repeatedly in addition to sexual abuse” (Rosenberg). By killing her son, she removed the threat of further
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Lennie was going to die whether George killed him or Curley did, but George did it much more peacefully and much less painfully. If Lennie did have the choice, and knew that Curley would make the end of his life miserable by “shoot[ing] the guts out of that big bastard”, he most definitely agree with George’s decision to kill him. He would rather die in peace than Curley killing him, being a prisoner, living among people he does not know without George, or being tortured. Lennie’s whole life and source of happiness comes from George, so if he was put into an insane asylum or prison without George there, he would have been much more miserable than if he just died a painless, quick death talking to