Of Mice and Men Forum

Was George's decision about Lennie's fate right or wrong at the end of the book? Why?

I think George does the right thing.  If he does not shoot Lennie, the alternatives are much worse: imprisonment for killing Curley's wife, or incarceration in a mental facility, or being shot in the guts by Curley and dying a slow, painful death.

George saw how bad Candy felt about letting a stranger shoot his dog.  Candy admits he should have shot the dog himself.  Same result, but done out of love instead of hate.  George shoots Lennie out of love.  How terribly difficult that must have been for him.  Of course, the men do not understand George's feelings, as evidenced by the last line of the novel.

Don't you think George could have done the wrong thing? He had no right to determines someone else's fate like that. Why not just let Lennie go off into hiding somewhere, instead of shooting him. George will regret killing Lennie for the rest of his life.

No, I think he will miss Lennie terribly, and the implication in the book is that George will end up like all the other ranch guys--lonely, directionless, spending his money on booze and women.  But I don't think he will regret his decision.  If he were to let Lennie go off into the woods by himself, either Curly would hunt him down and kill him, or a predator would catch him. 

As for "determining someone else's fate," I think George weighed all the alternatives and decided that killing Lennie quickly and mercifully was the least painful for both Lennie and himself.  Every alternative involved Lennie being either caged or killed, and George would have regretted letting that happen at someone else's hands.

As well if he would have let him go, Lennie would have starved or even drank some dirty water from a creek, since he doesn't test the water.