...John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men In John Steinbeck's classic novella, Of Mice and Men, one of the predominant themes that govern the story and characters in the book is friendship. One of the ways in which friendship plays a large role is in the area of mercy killing, which affects the main characters as well as the supporting ones. The two major mercy killings that occur in the book are those of Carlson's killing of Candy's old dog, and of George's killing of Lennie. In both of these examples, the killer kills the other out of mercy and love, not for the usual motives of hatred, rage, anger, etc. The killing of Candy's dog is an excellent example of mercy killing in the aforesaid novella. Candy's dog was in terrible condition, and it could barely be said that the ratty old thing was even alive. It stunk like a dozen skunks, was nearly blind, could barely hear, had arthritis that was so bad, the old mutt couldn't sit down, had no quality of life, and probably had urinary and bowel problems, a miserable condition that is almost assured in old dogs. This instance of mercy killing, however, was more driven by peer pressure than the typical case of mercy killing. When someone kills another loved one out of mercy, it is normally done to put the afflicted one out of their misery, torment, anguish, distress, etc. The other ranch hands thought that the dog reeked more than any of its other conditions, which was the only one that they, too, could experience. Candy's dog loved its master...
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...John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men In John Steinbeck's classic novella, Of Mice and Men, one of the predominant themes that govern the story and characters in the book is friendship. One of the ways in which friendship plays a large role is in the area of mercy killing, which affects the main characters as well as the supporting ones. The two major mercy killings that occur in the book are those of Carlson's killing of Candy's old dog, and of George's killing of Lennie. In both of these examples, the killer kills the other out of mercy and love, not for the usual motives of hatred, rage, anger, etc. The killing of Candy's dog is an excellent example of mercy killing in the aforesaid novella. Candy's dog was in terrible condition, and it could barely be said that the ratty old thing was even alive. It stunk like a dozen skunks, was nearly blind, could barely hear, had arthritis that was so bad, the old mutt couldn't sit down, had no quality of life, and probably had urinary and bowel problems, a miserable condition that is almost assured in old dogs. This instance of mercy killing, however, was more driven by peer pressure than the typical case of mercy killing. When someone kills another loved one out of mercy, it is normally done to put the afflicted one out of their misery, torment, anguish, distress, etc. The other ranch hands thought that the dog reeked more than any of its other conditions, which was the only one that they, too, could experience. Candy's dog loved its master...
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...Mercy killing can be shown very much in this novel. It plays an important role throughout the novel that affects the main characters as well as the supporting ones. It is the object of much of the story and is full of meaning. The theme of mercy killing in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, is demonstrated through the killing of Candy's dog and of Lennie. The killing of Candy's dog is a really good example of mercy killing in the aforementioned novel. Candy's dog was in horrible condition. It smelled, it had trouble seeing, it had trouble hearing and nobody thought that it was able to get a valuable quality out of life. This type of mercy killing, however, was a dark and greedy version. The men on the farm felt that the dog reeked and they could not stand it. They also didn't seem to care much about Candy. They decided too put the dog out of his misery by shooting him but not for the sake of the dog or for Candy but for themselves. 'Look, Candy. This ol' dog jus' suffers hisself all the time. If you was to take him out and shoot him right in the back of the head---.' (45) 'A shot sounded in the distance. The men looked quickly at the old man. Every head turned toward him.' (49) Another excellent example of mercy killing is the killing of Lennie. Lennie Small had many problems that handicapped him from being able to act like a normal person. He had made himself and George lose many jobs and get kicked out of many towns. He could not handle himself without being instructed...
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...The quote “To save a mans’ life against his will is the same as killing him” describes Euthanasia (Horace). Many people during this time struggled with this topic and John Steinbeck shows the reader what it is like to be surrounded by struggling people in this era throughout the book Of Mice and Men. Euthanasia is still seen today all over the world. Steinbeck uses the death of Candy’s dog and the death of Lennie to show how a helpless and defenseless person or animal can be killed against their will. Mercy killings have been committed by people since the seventeenth century and are described as a happy end to suffering. This suffering is usually from a disease or a cancer the person are just done fighting. It is said “mercy killing means...
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...in the distance, the sounds of men shouting to one another can be discerned. The men belting deafening screams at each other, trying to pinpoint Lennie’s location and take him down. In the book Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, one of the main characters, Lennie, gets into a multitudinous amount of trouble and ends up paying for it all. Lennie is a mentally disabled, middle aged man, who is traveling with George, a fellow companion, who is trying to keep him away from these harmful encounters. George is not able to protect Lennie from the crimes he commits and ended up needing to shoot Lennie to prevent him from any further trouble. Lennie Small’s being shot was a mercy killing and not a murder....
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...Gloria Kim Mrs. Maniscalco College Prep English I November 2, 2015 Literary Signposts In the novella Of Mice and Men, there are many meaningful moments that stand out in the literature. These are called signposts. They let the reader discover the text and confirm their interpretations. Contrasts and contradictions, again and again, memory moment, aha moment, tough questions, and words of the wiser are all examples of signposts. Of Mice and Men is a novella about two migrant workers who travel from place to place looking for new work opportunities. By integrating again and again, tough questions and words of the wiser into Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck has developed a suspenseful novella. Throughout the book, Lennie tends to accidently kill many of the things he touches. He fails to acknowledge his personal strength over the feeble. All the mice that Lennie killed overtime represents the advantage between the strong and the weak. Lennie doesn’t mean to kill his own puppy or Curley’s wife but he can’t fix his same routine. He enjoys petting furry, soft things but sometimes puts a little too much force, killing the poor creatures. “’He was so little,’ said Lennie. ‘I was jus’ playin’ with him…an’ he made like he’s gonna bite me…an’ I made like I was gonna smack him…an’…an’ I done it. An’ then he was dead.’” (Steinback 87). The author made Lennie’s character...
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...Is Killing a loved one ever justified? How would it be decided when to kill them? Yes killing another person can be at times. Like when George thought about killing Lennie it was not in hate, it was in Lennie’s best interest. These questions are fought in John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men. George was justified in killing Lennie since the other men would have tortured Lennie, he also saved Lennie from himself, and George vowed he would take care of Lennie and George thought this was Lennie’s best option. First of all George saved Lennie from being tortured by the other men especially Curley. George was justified since he gave Lennie mercy and made his death instantaneous. He prevented Lennie from a long and painful death. For example...
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...How does the setting of Of Mice and Men influence the book's thematic development? In answering, consider the connection between the novel's setting and the characters' vocations. Also, how does Steinbeck signal the importance of setting in his choice of place names? Though the novel is more famous for its characters than its setting, Of Mice and Men could not have been set elsewhere than in the rural Salinas valley of California. The problems of the novel are intimately tied to the rhythms and frustrations of the itinerant worker's life. Shifting from ranch to ranch, from one menial job to another, the Californian itinerant worker risked a life of meaningless labor - of pure, cynical sustenance. George and Lennie, with their dream of acquiring a farm, represent an attempt to stand against such perpetual loneliness. Even the name of the city near which the novel is set - Soledad, which is Spanish for "solitude" - resonates with this theme of loneliness. The title, Of Mice and Men, is an allusion to a Robert Burns poem. How is this allusion meaningful in the novel? Consider some similarities and differences between Burns and Steinbeck's works. Robert Burns' poem, "To a Mouse," is the source of the famous quotation: "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men / Gang aft agley" ("often go awry"). And, indeed, Of Mice and Men features two men with a scheme - to escape their lives of menial, temporary employment - that goes awry. Beyond this simple plot similarity,...
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...Of Mice and Men Free Response Essay Questions The scene in which George shoots Lennie and the scene in which Carlson takes Candy’s dog away to kill it both add characterization to the novels theme of a person’s responsibility to another person. The novel of mice and men allows us to explore the relationship between George and Lennie. We also explore the relationship candy has with his dog. Candy’s responsibility over his dog is parallel to George’s over Lennie. Carlson cannot stand candy’s dog because it is old and smells badly it’s also arthritic. With candy’s consent Carlson takes the dog out on a thong leash and tells candy “He won’t even feel it.” Away Carlson shoots the dog with his gun and then buries it. Later candy confesses to George that he shouldn’t have let a stranger shoot his dog. Due to Lennie’s retardation Lennie accidently kills Curley’s wife. After the rest of the workers find out, they set out to find Lennie and kill him. George is stuck between turning his friend in to the police or letting curly and the rest of the workers kill Lennie. George decides that none of the two options will save Lennie from horrible consequences. Because candy expressed his remorse in not killing his own dog George decides to kill Lennie rather than have Lennie spend his life in jail. When George finds Lennie by the river he comforts Lennie. George tells Lennie to picture the farm they will buy and live off. As George tells the...
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...What would you do to protect the person you cared for the most? In the novella, “Of Mice and Men”, written in 1937 by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie are friends who look after each other. Lennie is mentally handicapped, and sometimes gets into trouble because of his strength. George does everything he can to keep Lennie safe, but this is a heavy burden placed on his shoulders. When Lennie makes a fatal mistake, George makes a choice that will haunt him forever: to kill his best friend. His choice to mercy-kill his own friend, rather than seeing him put into a jail or insane asylum, was the only possible choice. One event that influenced him was the death of Candy’s dog. While in the bunkhouse, Carlson convinces Candy that the dog, who is too old to do any work, would be better off dead. Even Slim agrees that the dog’s suffering would end if he was put down. Since Slim is looked upon as the leader, Candy has no choice but to let go of his dog. After the dog is dead Candy says to George, “I oughtta of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t oughtta of let no stranger shoot my dog.” (Steinbeck, 61). This is a foreshadowing of Lennie’s impending death, and of how George chooses to mercy-kill Lennie later in the book....
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...years George and Lennie have been going through together, “[George] pulls the trigger” to end Lennie’s life (Steinbeck 106). In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie, who is mentally handicapped, travel together finding work. Both of them have a dream of owning land together and getting rabbits to let Lennie tend. Lennie and George have previously been kicked out of Weed because of an incident having to do with Lennie grabbing onto a woman’s dress. Lennie is constantly getting in trouble because of his bad judgement. George and Lennie then arrive to a new ranch to work at. Curley’s wife is a beautiful woman who is searching for attention because of the lack of attention from her husband, Curley. Lennie is unaware of his own strength, kills a pup and then does not know what to do. He thinks that George will be mad at him and not let him tend to the rabbits. Curley’s wife talks to Lennie and lets him touch her hair because it is soft. When she starts to panic, so does Lennie. He grabs tighter and tells her not to yell because George might hear and get mad. While just trying to cover her mouth, Lennie accidentally breaks her neck and kills her. Lennie runs away and George and the other men from the ranch find him. George...
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...“A Not so Ordinary Life” John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men was a story of two somewhat ordinary men that lived during the Great Depression. George and Lennie, the two main characters that had a dream of living on farm of their own and growing their own crops and living of the land. For George, working with Lennie and taking care of him was not the easiest thing. Lennie was more of the slow type, he did everything that George asked and he looked up to George. Lennie had accidentally strangled, and killed Curly’s wife, which made almost everyone at the farm very mad. Curly wanted to kill Lennie and make him suffer, but instead, George had put one clean shot into the back of his head. It was not right for George to kill Lennie, they could have done other things and worked it out. Killing for mercy is never the answer. George had made a promise to Lennie’s aunt that he would take care of him. Also Lennie did not mean to do what he did, he did not understand his own strength....
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...The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a novella set in California, America, during The Great Depression. The novella explores two itinerants, George Milton and Lennie Small, going after their dream of owning their own piece of land. Throughout the dramatic novella, we discover that sometimes it is necessary to be cruel to be kind. The killing of Candy's old dog, George and Lennie not speaking to Curley's wife, and the final decision George makes to shoot Lennie are all examples of showing some 'tough love'. When difficult choices are to be made, the solution may not always be what we desire. When Candy's “ancient dog” starts to bother the men in the bunkhouse, Carlson suggests to Candy that the dog should be shot. Candy, strongly...
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...can be found in Steinbeck’s novel in a couple cases. The first form of euthanasia is when Carlson took Candy’s dog and shot him because Carlson found him to be too old and made the bunk room smell. The second is when George euthanizes Lennie. Even though many readers may have wanted Lennie to be locked up or to run away, mercy killing him was the best choice in Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men. George helping Lennie to run away is the first possible ending to the novel. Lennie could have run away with George if they had been fast enough. If the had gotten away they may have gone to another town or farm to find...
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..."Of Mice and Men" is a book about two men and their struggle to achieve their dream of owning a small ranch through their companionship. The two men are completely different, one being a retarded fellow (Lennie), and the other, a typical ranch hand(George) who travels with him. On the path to achieving their dream, they run into obstacles, but stick together, stressing the importance of true friendship. Steinbeck wrote this book to tell us how important it is to have a friend to share your life with. The book starts off set in Soledad, which, when translated into English means "lonely". But when Lennie and George are together, they are anything but lonely. They share a friendship so great that if either person dies, or both are separated, the other could not survive. Steinbeck shows us that their friendship is a true one, where they share their lives together, benefiting from each other’s company. “Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to… With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody...
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