Lennie had to be killed by Curly and George had no power to stop Curly from killing him. This is the first reason why George had to kill Lennie. Lennie had killed curly’s wife by stroking her hair. During this time, Curly’s wife was in pain as she screamed but due to Lennie’s foolishness, Lennie didn’t stop torturing Curlys wife (p, 91). Due to the torture carried by Lennie on Curly’s wife, Curly had to revenge by killing Lennie to make sure he undergoes the same level of torture he had subjected his wife to .Thus to avoid such torture on Lennie, George had to kill him calmly and unexpectedly rather than let him undergo a miserable death full of torture including being locked up in the bobby hatch and being shot severally.. Secondly, Lennie had been a burden to George and he had no choice but rather remove such a burden. Lennie seems very stupid and unable to control his anger and strength through his actions as it can be seen from the act of killing Curly wife. Further when George said he was going away and never return, Lennie asks ‘who hurt George’ (p, 72). On the contrary it is him who had made George a victim of fate (p, 72).
George had to bear the consequences of Lennie’s stupidity. This had cost George a lot, including this job as he could move from one job to starting over again in another after the mischief committed by Lennie. To add on these, George was very passionate about his job as it can be seen from the start where he observes that his life could be easy with a good pay from a good career and thus he would spend as much as he wanted. Due to Lennie, George was suffering a lot of depression in trying to make his career life work and this could have aggravated his decision to kill Lennie. George was justified in Killing Lennie. This was due to the care George had on Lennie that he couldn’t have left him to suffer torture in the hands of Curly .Rather than Lennie facing miserable death; George decides to shoot him at a time when he is happy and peaceful and was not expecting death which could have traumatized him (p, 106). Further, Lennie couldn’t take care of himself incase George left, this meant that they had to be together all the time but Lennie was becoming a burden not only to George but also was to the others as he couldn’t be able to control his strength and anger.
This causes him to kill even small innocent creatures such as mice and a puppy (p, 85).He later goes on killing Curly’s wife. To reduce such future incidences of trouble not only to Lennie but also to the people who Lennie interacted with, it was justified for George to kill him. George had two alternatives if he couldn’t have killed Lennie. First he could have hidden Lennie in a safe place where he could teach him how to manage his emotions and strength. This was possible as Lennie could learn as it can be analyzed from his actions .e. g Lennie remembers the instruction by George that he shouldn’t be around Curly’s wife as she was a poison (p, 32). The second alternative was letting Lennie to be killed by Curly if he had to be killed rather than killing him. The two alternatives would not have been better. First he couldn’t have hid Lennnie forever. If Lennie hadn’t been able to learn from long before, being hidden by George wouldn’t have been a solution to teach him how to manage his emotions and take care of himself. Secondly, Lennie would have undergone a lot of torture before finally dying in the hands of Curly. It could have a failure for George to allow this to happen to his best friend yet he had a solution by making sure that Lennie died a happy and peaceful death.
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References
- Shmoop’s character analysis of George Milton from Of Mice and Men
- CliffsNotes’ summary and analysis of Chapter 1 from Of Mice and Men
- GradeSaver’s analysis of major themes in Of Mice and Men
- Prezi’s literary analysis of Of Mice and Men
- English Stack Exchange’s discussion on the use of “of” and “but” in sentences
