Well, I don't know that there is a right or wrong answer
to this question, so it is one that each person would have to decide for him or herself.
It hinges a lot on the meaning of the word "correct." I am going to assume that what
you mean by this is "Did George make the correct choice in killing
Lennie?"
Still, how do we define "correct?" It's not the
same thing as "right vs. wrong" in a moral sense. What you're asking, essentially, is
"would most people in a similar situation act in a similar way." That is a fair
assumption of "correctness." Again, though, notice that this is different than asking
if it was morally right or wrong to do.
So the question
remains...did George make the right call?
The answer:
Maybe.
Who can really say? George made the call that he
felt he had to make. God knows what would have happened to Lennie had they caught up
with him. Knowing the time period, the most likely result is that they would have
strung him up from a tree, a tortuous way to die. At best they would have probably
beaten and arrested him, after which he would have either been put in jail for the rest
of his life (which would probably mean a brutal work camp) or housed in an asylum
(which, at the time, might have been worse than death!)
At
either rate, George made the decision to kill his best friend to help him avoid that
kind of suffering, suffering he wouldn't have truly been able to understand. In
George's mind, of course, it was a mercy killing. Based on the evidence, it is hard to
argue with his logic.
There you have it: in my humble
opinion, I would have to say that George made the correct decision in helping his friend
avoid a fate worse than death (though, as I said, it is likely he would have been killed
by the "mob" in a far more brutal way.) In this case, George must be given the benefit
of the doubt. He felt he was responsible for Lennie, and loved him. In that capacity,
he couldn't let Lennie die like a dog at the hands of the angry
posse.
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