Mercy killing of mice and me
Mercy killing - of mice and meMercy Killing
In the book Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, two men travel together to escape their pasts. They arrive at a ranch in the Salinas Valley with hopes to achieve their ultimate dream; to buy a place to call their own. Lennie, who is a simple-minded man, and George, who is just a typical guy are brought together and make a lasting friendship out of the loneliness of each man. While spending time on the farm George and Lennie meet some friendly characters, but because of some accidental deaths their dreams drift away. Foreshadowing may create a literary theme.
Lennie is a massive and powerful man, but is dull-witted, George on the other hand is scrawnier and not as mighty. Both are hearty individuals just trying to survive a tough life. After Lennie’s Aunt Clara passed away George took the responsibility of looking after Lennie. Through good and bad times George has learned to love and protect him. Lennie, an animal lover at heart always takes pleasure from petting them. He loves all small, soft, fuzzy things and cannot help himself from petting them. During their journey to the new ranch, Lennie catches a mouse, “I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along.” (Steinbeck:6). George hates it when Lennie catches animals and plays with them “well you ain’t petting no mice while you walk with me.” (Steinbeck:6) because he knows Lennie could end up killing the tiny animal. Lennie does not know his own strength and handles the mouse too rough “you’ve broke it pettin’ it.” (Steinbeck:9) After the two men spend the night in the woods, they finish their journey and arrive at the ranch.
Soon after they arrive at the ranch, George and Lennie meet some new and delightful people that they will be living with, until they earn enough money to buy a place of their own. One of the new people that Lennie and George meet was Candy and his old dog. Candy was an old swamper, and was missing one hand, his dog was just like him, very old and in poor shape. The poor old dog was blind, deaf, had no teeth and everyone complained about it smelling horrible, “we can’t sleep with him stinkin’ around in here.” (Steinbeck:47) All the farm hands believe that killing the dog was in the favor of the dog’s own good. Candy didn’t want to lose his life long friend “I had him since he was a pup, I herded sheep with him.” (Steinbeck:44) Finally Candy agreed and Carlson took the dog into the woods and shot him, putting the suffering dog out of his misery. This is the first mercy killing in the story and foreshadows a bigger event later on.
George and Lennie soon become friendly with the farm...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.