Moral Conflict In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

“Of Mice and Men” deals with many facets of human responsibility and love. The main moral conflict deals with George's responsibility to Lennie, and to the rest of the group. There were major conflicts in this story line, Lennie had a problem with his self-control, he couldn't control his actions. He touched a women's dress once and she cried for help accusing him of rape. The townspeople chased George and Lennie out of town because they believed what that girl had said. Lennie was a “troubled” in most peoples’ eyes and George had to constantly get him out of trouble. He had to take care of Lennie because without George, Lennie would not survive. They had to travel from town to town because of Lennie's compulsive behavior. “Of Mice and Men”
(Stage 1 Kohlberg) Other people might say that George was only trying to help Lennie, so he wasn’t intending to do anything wrong; nevertheless, he still had to run away and lie about what happened if he was ever caught. (Stage 2 Kohlberg) The majority of people though I think would fall into (Stage 3), which is where Kohlberg seemed to think most would end up. People here think that members of society need to be concerned about others’ feelings and try to behave in “good ways.” I feel that ultimately this is the level where George was, which is why he felt it was the right thing to shoot Lennie, because the other farmers were mean for “picking on him, because he didn't know better and he didn’t know what he was doing.” There was a moment while reading though, where I also felt that George was in stage 2, the level of self-interest, my reasoning being that it was more about the returning favors. An individual in Stage 2 wants to meet his own self-interest. This is proven throughout the book, especially when George asked himself "what 's in it for me " He often questioned why he was stuck with Lennie when all he ever did was get him in trouble, and he gains no benefit at all from being with