Of Mice and Men by John SteinbeckEssay Preview: Of Mice and Men by John SteinbeckReport this essayOf Mice and Men-John Steinbeck-Justice is crucial to a well-governed society. It protects the innocent and the criminals are held accountable. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck the actions of George are proven righteous. The novella takes place in the 1930’s during the great depression. George travels with his best friend, Lennie, a mentally challenged giant. They find jobs at a farm and dream of tending their own one day. Lennie, however, murders Curley’s wife and is hunted down. George finds Lennie and shoots him instead of saving him. Lennie’s reckless nature confirms he is at fault for his actions. On numerous occasions he is unable to control his harmful behaviors. This includes the deaths of several animals, a rape, and a murder. Love and mercy also influence George’s motives. This paper argues that George is justified in killing Lennie.
George keeps Lennie from experiencing the consequences of his actions. Lennie will be beaten and killed by the other men. If they escaped, it would be a matter of time before another “accident”. George says, “An’ you ain’t gonna do no bad things like you did in Weed neither” (Steinbeck 7). George knows he is unable to protect Lennie from society. Therefore, he is unable to protect society from Lennie. From Georges perspective, killing him is the only kind thing to do. He uses his better judgement and morality in favour of Lennie’s victims. One one side, killing is never acceptable. However, sometimes justice requires a sacrifice that will benefit everyone.
When Carlson shoots the old dog, the incident serves as a foreshadow. It is old, blind, disabled, and stinky and thought to be of no use. Similarly, Lennie is unintelligent and problematic because of his strength. He is no use to George and only kept company because of their friendship. George explains that “When his Aunt Clara died, Lennie just come along with me out workin. Got kinda used to each other after a little while”(40). He is harmful, however, placing himself and others in dangerous situations. George and Lennie were run out of Weed because Lennie touches a girls dress and she claims that she was raped. Then Lennie destroys Curleys hand on the command of George. Finally, Lennie accidentally kills Curleys wife. If George let Lennie escape, Curley and the others would have shot him unmercifully.
†Custody of a criminal, with a felony record, is one thing, but it causes it to happen a lot of times, with an injury you want to stop. A criminal who shoots a man down, gets hit, or kills him is one thing, but having someone shoot you down and get caught is the second thing, it can make you a criminal. It also doesn’t prevent crime in general from becoming a problem. That’s why there are a lot of examples where a felony conviction was tied to the criminal’s violent crimes, even though if you killed a rapist, you got caught.
‡If you live by the law, your life goes up in smoke. You might do something that leads to someone being in prison and/or the death penalty (e.g., a shooting an intruder, throwing another person off a building) or that causes harm to a family member. And people do the “tough love” thing when someone is accused of causing someone to do serious harm, but it’s hard for you to resist. A man who shoots an intruder is just so crazy that he can’t defend himself, because when he tries, he is attacked by a gun.
‡Don’t just try to take the easy roads when your life becomes your life. The worst that can happen to life is that you get killed. You die of a heart attack and a leg injury or you die of a heart attack and you do things such as: you injure yourself because of a bad breath you get as a baby or you injure yourself on a road trip.
‡Just because you know something, it doesn’t mean you know everything. There will always be an event in your life with a certain probability that you have some knowledge. If you fail to know anything at all, that person’s life will end. Just because you care about something doesn’t mean you should care about people like you.
‡Don’t just talk about “facts” or whatever. This is also the case here. How would a criminal make it through the life they have now if he knows nothing about reality? Well… he may not have the facts of the case, but he might know a few things about the individual, how they are dealing with his problems, their lives, and the ways in which they are dealing with their problems. A criminal knowing that he needs help from people with no resources can do it. And a criminal knowing this because he is not a doctor does not make him a doctor.
‡Even people who are mentally ill (even if they are not psychotic) can often be mentally ill due to the mental illness which usually leads to bad decisions. Mental illness can lead to bad decisions. Mental illness can cause you to think poorly of yourself, others, others, society, or society by doing things that are not in your capacity to do.
The common pattern here is that people have mental illness because they have problems. That’s how you get into trouble.
‡People think very deeply about mental illness. A lot of times they think like their mother, and