Is it ever right to kill someone? The answer has to be no. After all, we all know the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." And yet... what about soldiers in wartime? What about... George and Lennie? Did George have a choice? Steinbeck's story is a great classic precisely because it raises such a profound questions for us to grapple with.

I think that George makes the right decision at the end of the play because if he had not shot Lennie, the other men would have shot George and Lennie.

Some people believe it is ok to kill if it is out of love, but killing is killing and it’s wrong to take one mans life. You can’t put a bow on top of it and call it love. Many people who kill do it out of selfish reasons, not love.


There are many example of selfishly killing someone, not just in this book but in our society today. When the mouse turned on Lennie and inflicted pain on him, he crushed its little skulls. The thing that was giving him pleasure suddenly was giving him pain. A mouse that does not give pleasure has no value to Lennie so it was killed. other examples are , Carlson saw no value in having a smelly old dog, so he killed it. Slim drowned the 3 smallest puppies because they had no value to him. Slim's puppy bit Lennie, so he killed it. Curley’s wife was screaming and would cause, in Lennies mind, George to not let Lennie tend to the rabbits. Lennie was useful to George because with having Lennie as a hard worker, George could also have work. Now that Lennie's action could possibly have an adverse effect on George, he no longer had use of Lennie... so he killed him.

i think that george should have shot lennie because if he dint do it then he would might as well be shot.lennie would probrally do something that will cause his death later so if he would'nt shot him then someone else would.it was also kind of his responsibility to shot him just how candy tried to kill his dog.

-jorge luna