The Struggle Of Migrant Workers In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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To end a life is to end a person’s essence. John Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men to characterize the struggle of migrant workers in the 1930s. George and Lennie are friends who travel to make a living to create a dream that George fostered in his mind. Lennie is an individual who has a mind that is very childlike and innocent. They work in a farm where they buck barley to make a living. They have a couple of problems which puts them in an jam. The major problem is when Lennie kills a woman. Lennie flees and the others find the body. Curley, the husband of the woman, enlists the other men to find Lennie. George leaves the search group to find Lennie and put him out of despair . George finds Lennie and gives him the dream one last time then places …show more content…
George generally cared for Lennie and did not want to see him get hurt or go away. “ If you don’ want me I can go off in the an’ find a cave. I can go away any time ” Lethen George stated “ No look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ’Cause I want you to stay with me”. When George cares for Lennie’s it is not like a friend but like a son. He cares that Lennie would not feel anything if he gave him his dream then made sure he did not see or feel the gun. A parent that sees his kid in pain would never want to see them in pain like George with Lennie. Also, George cares for Lennie by keeping him from pain and suffering like Gigi Jordan keeping her son Jude Jordan from pain. In the words of Gigi Jordan her son “ suddenly began to regress and reverted to crawling, lost his curiosity and became all but mute”. (Qtd. In Rosenberg) Gigi Jordan is extremely like George in the sense that she wanted to keep her kid from regressing backwards it was similar in that George wanted to keep Lennie from his suffering. Gigi jordan and George are similar but they did kill someone for different reasons Jude had a disease that made him regress. Lennie killed a girl because he acts like a child. But both George and Gigi wanted to keep them from pain. People who are close to each other can tell if someone is in pain or if they do not need to …show more content…
However killing someone for to protect them from pain is not murder but a mercy killing. However if George went with the men and gave them Lennie’s location. Lennie would die of horrible pain of bleeding out of an gunshot wound to the gut. What George did is just like what John Wise did when his wife fell il with an triple aneurysm and was in a coma. Mr. Wise “slipped into Room 3201 of the intensive care unit, where his wife of 45 years had been for a week. He put a gun to her left temple and pulled the trigger” (Rivera). Mr. Wise had known his wife for 45 years and did not want to see her suffer anymore that she had. He knew his wife better than any person or doctor and knew she did not want to stay in a coma. To conclude, George killing Lennie was not an murder but a mercy killing. If it was murder then it would fit the definition which is an premeditated killing of a human by another. George did not plan to kill Lennie but to turn him in. The definition of mercy killing is to kill someone to keep them from suffering a painful death. So by looking at the definitions what George did is a mercy

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