Sacrificess To Help Others In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men
1300 Words6 Pages
In a quote from The Island of Plenty, Johnson C. Montgomery explained his view that, although our compassionate nature causes us to be concerned about societal issues, we shouldn’t let those emotions distract us from acting realistically and that the most realistic solution to said problems is typically simple but is often too harsh and inhumane to accept. Montgomery makes some good points in saying that we shouldn’t let our decisions be controlled by emotion; however, his belief that we shouldn’t help others if it requires sacrifice from us is completely unacceptable.
First of all, refusing to help others, even though it may require sacrifice from us, creates more problems than it solves. This was demonstrated in Ryan Coogler’s 2018 film,…show more content… For instance, in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, George Milton has sacrificed all of his dreams and hope for success to fully devote himself to care for his mentally disabled companion Lennie. Although he does this voluntarily, George can get very frustrated with Lennie and sometimes seems to wish he had left him to chase his own dreams, as evidenced when he said “I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I could live so easy…” (7). According to Johnson C. Montgomery, George should just leave Lennie to fend for himself and go pursue his own dreams. He is frustrated with Lennie, and he knows he could have lived a much easier life without him, so at this point Montgomery would say he is sacrificing too much for another person, it is causing him to much harm to be worth it anymore. However, we see later on that George depends on Lennie as well. As a ranch worker, the stereotype would designate George as a very lonely person, as he admits when saying, “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world,” (13). Contrarily, George and Lennie always travel around with each other, so having Lennie around gives George a sense of companionship he would otherwise lack. Lennie also gives George hope and motivation to keep going through his enthusiasm for their dream of owning their own farm and living “off the fatta the lan’,” (Steinbeck…show more content… For instance, consider the process of euthanasia. It is common practice to use euthanasia to “put down” an animal that is incurably ill; however, a terminally ill human child would not receive the same options. Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D. of Psychology Today once questioned the ethics of euthanizing his dog, Bentley, in his article “Is it ethical to euthanize your dog?,” saying, “Bentley had the intellect of a very intelligent two-year-old human...But, had Bentley been a two-year-old human instead of a dog, euthanasia would not have been a legal option.” Choosing to euthanize a dog but not a human isn’t generally questioned, as most of society tends to accept the practice; despite this, if Montgomery’s principles were to be strictly followed, both the dog and the terminally ill child would receive euthanasia, as both are incurable and the simplest solution would be to end both of their lives, thus ending their suffering and doing away with the costs of continuing their treatment. However, as pointed out in the article, “...most of us would not even consider euthanizing a very young, terminally ill child…” (Cohen). This is because, although euthanizing the child is the most realistic solution, it is simply too harsh to be