The novel “Of Mice and Men” has a tragic ending which raises a number of ethical issues. In this respect, the question whether George did the right thing for Lennie or not remains unanswered. In fact, each reader can have his own view on this question, but, in all probability, George had good intentions while helping his friend to die. In actuality, Lennie did not have a choice whether to live or die, he rather had a choice of how to die and George took decision for Lennie and shot him. Obviously, George understood that the death is inevitable for Lennie, but he wanted to ease the last minutes of his friend’s life. Hence, he decided to shoot him dead and die in the matter of seconds, instead of being lynched by the outraged crowd that was likely to kill Lennie slowly and painfully. In such a context, motives of George’s act are obvious.
On the other hand, they cannot fully justify his act because he did not have the right to kill Lennie since it is a crime from legal as well as moral point of view. At the same time, it is important to understand the fact that Lennie has died for his dream, which raised in his mind due to George who made Lennie convinced that he would have a better life.

In such a situation, George’s act can be justified from the moral point of view for he maintained Lennie’s dream until the end of his life and did not allow other people destroy the dream, which made the life of Lennie purposeful. At the same time, George understood that Lennie’s life and dream was ruined by the rape and George simply helped his friend to avoid further sufferings both moral and physical.

Works Cited:

Steinbeck, J. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin Classics, 2002.

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