When George Killed Lennie Is Wrong

In the end of the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Lennie accidentally killed Curley's wife after she would not stop screaming for him to let her go, George knows that there is not any way he can get out of it. Even if they were somehow able to escape, Lennie is unable to keep himself out of trouble and therefore will never be safe. If Curley were to find Lennie he would lynch him, making his death agonizingly slow and torturous. George killed Lennie to spare him the agony that he would have had to face either at the hands of Curley or due to his inability to care for himself.

George made the right decision in killing Lennie, although it was likely the hardest thing he has ever had to do, he realized that Lennie cannot take care of himself and will continue killing innocent animals/people if left alone, George himself is unfit to care for Lennie, he is not able to supervise him all the time and give him the help he needs. If Lennie was to be set free and do as he said “Well, I could. I could go off in the hills there. Some place I’d find a cave.”

Had Curley found him, he would have exacted his revenge for both breaking his hand earlier in the novel, and for murdering his wife, he says “I’m gonna get him. I’m going for my shotgun. I’ll kill the big son-of-a-bitch myself. I’ll shoot ‘im in the guts. Come on, you guys.” (Steinbeck, 96) This proves that Curley would stop at nothing to kill Lennie, and he would do it in a brutal and excruciatingly painful manor. George simply shot him in the back of the head, Lennie had no idea it was coming, and therefore was not scared, he had nothing to fear. George told him everything would be okay, that they would get their ranch and he could tend to the rabbits, he did ths to calm Lennie down, and allow him to die