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The Role Of George's Conscience In Of Mice Of Men

Decent Essays

Justice for George’s Conscience In Steinbeck’s Of Mice of Men, George is confronted with the troubling conflict of ending his best and only friend’s life. In the depression stricken 1930’s, George Milton and Lennie Smalls are saving money until they can buy their dream homestead. This dream comes to a screeching halt when Lennie kills the boss’s son’s wife. George decides to end Lennie’s life while describing their dream homestead one last time . George should have killed Lennie because Curley would have tortured him, lennie was his responsibility, and he would have continued to do bad things. If George had not killed Lennie, he would have continued to do bad things. This is first shown when he grabbed the girl in Weed and him accidentally killing Aunt Clara’s mice.When Lennie killed the puppy and Curley’s wife it showed that Lennie was incapable of not doing bad things. Lennie did not understand his strength or why both girls tried to get away from him when he grabbed them. Steinback showed that Lennie was not aware that he was hurting the mice, the puppy, or Curley’s wife when he said, “All the time he done bad things, but he never done one of em’ mean.”(Steinback 95). George knew that even if he and Lennie ran away that Lennie's past would continue to follow them. Lennie was under the care of …show more content…

George was not going to be able sit aside and watch while they would have tortured him. Steinbeck describes Curley’s plans for torturing Lennie by writing, “I’m gonna shoot the guts outa that big bastard myself, even if I only got one hand. I’m gonna get ‘im.” (98). Although some argue that they might have put Lennie in the laws custody, George thought that locking Lennie away in a mental asylum was even worse than shooting him. If Curley had tortured Lennie, Lennie would be like a small child and would not be able to grasp what was happening and why George was not stopping the

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