Symbolism In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Is euthanasia ever okay in the world we live in today? In the book Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, George shot Lennie to save him from future suffering and danger. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses symbolism and characterization to portray that George is right about shooting Lennie.

Steinbeck uses symbolism to assert that George is right about shooting Lennie. In the ranch, there is a controversy about Candy’s dog. From the story, it states,"I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog"(Steinbeck). This symbolizes that Candy regrets letting Carlson shooting his dog. He wanted to shoot his own dog because Candy's dog would then have a reason to die. Also, he thought that it was going to be better if he kill the dog for himself because he is the owner of the dog, however he let some other person shoot his dog. Steinbeck uses symbolism of the death of Candy's dog to relate to the death of Lennie because it both shows that they

“George looked over at Slim and saw the calm, Godlike eyes fastened on him”(Steinbeck). Slim was in the ranch with some pups, however something was not right. In the novel, it has a quote that says,"She slang her pups last night," said Slim(Steinbeck). "Nine of 'em. I drowned four of 'em right off. She couldn't feed that many"(Steinbeck).From this quote, Slim contemplated about how the pup's future would be if he let all of them live. If Slim had let all 9 pups live, all nine of them would have a lesser chance of survival because the mother couldn't feed that many of them.After realizing this, Slim proceeded to kill 4 of the pups in order for the other five to have a greater chance of survival. Steinbeck uses this godlike character to argue that George was right about shooting Lennie by showing that if Slim supported euthanasia, then it was right for George to kill Lennie