Theme Of Morality In Of Mice And Men

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, legality is often deemed less important than morality in terms of decision making. Multiple characters throughout the novel disregard the law in order to carry out their vision of justice. When Curley, the son of the ranch owner, discovers his wife’s body, he is furious. So furious that he plans to track Lennie, a new employee with an intellectual disability, down and murder him to get revenge for his mistake. Regardless of the law, Curley’s morals based on vengeance and masculinity drive him to kill Lennie. George has very different morals based on protecting Lennie, his travel companion and friend. His ultimate goal of helping Lennie leads to him ending Lennie’s life in order to prevent his suffering at the hands of Curley. The concept that morality takes precedence over the law in certain cases is manifested through the decision of Curley to hunt Lennie down and the decision of George to end Lennie’s life in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Curley’s decision to hunt Lennie down for the murder of his wife is one circumstance in which a character’s morals are deemed more important than the laws that govern society. Curley is furious when he finds his wife dead at the hands of Lennie. He decides to hunt Lennie down and murder him in cold blood. When asked if he would like to stay back with his wife and grieve, he says, “‘I’m goin,’ ... ‘I’m gonna shoot the guts outta that big bastard myself, even if I only got one hand’” (98). Even