I was in airplane finishing John Steinbeck's classic novel "Of mice and men". An old man of about 70 years was sitting beside me. He asked me - what you will do, if similar situation happens to you?
Plot: This is a story of 2 men who are best friends. One friend is mentally challenged (Lennie) and other (George) takes care of him. They travel and work together. Accidentally, Lennie killed a woman and now woman's husband and other people from ranch are sure to kill him.
Question is: Would you kill your loved one by yourself - unaware in instant -to save him from agony of getting brutally killed by others? or will you not have (or should not have) heart to kill your loved one? - He is gonna get killed anyway.
Old man beside me in Airplane said: When I read this novel at age 40, I thought of never killing my loved one no matter what but now at age 70 I have other thoughts.
(John Steinbeck was an American writer. He published Of Mice and Men in 1937. In 1962 he was given Nobel Prize for Literature. you can read whole novel here)
4 comments:
The old man's comment raises the question
Have the values of life changed in 30 years? or his thinking has become different?
I think, his thinking get changed with experiences of life....
I doubt, I will ever have courage to kill anyone particularly loved one but now I can see why many time people kill their loved one like recent whole family killings in bad economy time or in many cultures parents killing their daughters at birth (so she escape away from rape/slavery etc)
You can only do something as such when you have no faith. I admit it takes veryyyyyyy strong faith in a person to see their loved one go through the pain of hunger or other such but to do such heinous acts because you"think" your child may get raped 10-13 years from now is idiocy and a lack of faith of any sort. There is no justification.
Annonymous....
I 100% agree with you... I will leave things to fate and faith if situation arise instead of taking decision in my hands but unfortunately humans are different and human minds think differently
Post a Comment