Was George Justified In Killing Lennie

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While some may think that it was wrong of George to kill Lennie, George was justified in killing Lennie because Lennie didn't know his own strength and was out of control.

To begin, the first reason George was justified to shoot Lennie is that Lennie had no idea how strong he was. Lennie’s strength can be clearly seen when Lennie accidentally killed his puppy in the barn. Even after he killed his puppy he yells at the dead dog saying,"' Why did you have to get killed? You ain't so little as mice..."' (Steinbeck 13). This quote from the book shows how Lennie doesn't realize how easily he can hurt someone. It was very obvious that Lennie was going to hurt someone because no one how dangerous he was. When the time came that Lennie had finally hurt someone it was too late and George had no choice but …show more content…
Lennie started becoming out of control when he killed his puppy. Even though Lennie didn’t mean to kill the puppy it sparked a chain reaction that would eventually lead to his death. Then Lennie broke Curley’s wife’s neck. This made it impossible for Lennie to be kept on the farm because he committed a murder and Curley wanted revenge. “Curley gon’ta wanta get ‘im lynched. Curley’ll get ‘im killed’ (Steinbeck 94).

Even though, some will say that George was not justified in killing Lennie because Lennie is a human being. Just because someone is a burden doesn’t mean you can just end there life. Also George was Lennie’s best friend and Lennie trusted George and he betrayed Lennie. “ We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in hell about us.” (Steinbeck 104).

In conclusion, even though Lennie was a human being and he should have been treated better, after Lennie killed Curley’s wife Lennie was going to die one way or another. George took matters into his own hands to give Lennie a more merciful death. It may seem wrong but it was the best solution for
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