Because Lennie's death is a "mercy killing" enacted consciously by George, it would be considered murder. However, since no one witnessed what has happened, George claims that he shot the gun in self-defense after getting it away from Lennie, who was going to shoot him.
The truth, of course, is that George has intentionally killed Lennie. However, he has shot Lennie in the same way that one would shoot an animal that is ill or dying or crazed; in other words, a mercy killing. George knows that poor Lennie could not bear being put into a cell, nor could he survive amid prisoners without any help from George, and George is powerless to help Lennie. Certainly, Lennie would be in despair if he were put into a mental asylum instead of a prison.
This ending for Lennie has been foreshadowed with the death of Candy's dog sand with Lennie's having been associated with an animal in the initial character description of his lumbering behind George as they entered the clearing; Lennie, with
...sloping shoulders...walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws.
George does not want to kill Lennie, but he knows the alternatives for his friend, and he cannot bear for Lennie to be confined in prison.
Lennie was in possession of Carlson's gun and he pointed it at George. He intimates to Carlson, who asks him what happened
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