Life is precious, but life is a one-time affair. What if that life was taken from him like a prize-winning novel? Marvin Wilson, a mentally retarded man, was sentenced to death after a breathtaking trial before the Supreme Court. During the trial, the opposition lawyer referenced the short story Of Mice of Men to support his position in the decision. He said most Texas citizens could agree that Steinbeck's Lennie should, because of his lack of reasoning ability and coping skills, be exempt. But is there consensus among Texas citizens that all people who would legitimately qualify for assistance under the social services definition of mental retardation should be exempt from an otherwise constitutional sanction? (New York Times, Mackey). This statement basically says: I will use this novel to condemn. Although it may seem like the information in a story is completely true because of the research done to create the news, it should not be used to kill a man. Each story contains information invented by the author. The lives of the characters and the events that take place in the stories are decided by the author and are often fictional. The information contained in a book can be misinterpreted by the reader and therefore misused in a real-life situation. When an author writes a novel, the ideas put forward are based on actual factual evidence, but many of these facts are changed because of the author's imagination. Essentially, any story that is not considered informative contains an element of truth as well as an element of fiction. Lennie and George are perfect examples of why this is true. The character known as Lennie Small is actually a real person, according to Steinbeck's son. "Lennie was a real person, ...... middle of paper ...... it had to happen sequentially. In real life, serious events cannot be planned, but in the short story, something something like Curley's hand braking can be planned because the story is controlled by one man Finally, the information provided by any piece of text can be interpreted differently. This means that one man could have. understand something differently than someone else. For example, one person might think that Curley's wife's death was intentional, while the other does not. With all of this in mind, how. can we use literature to make concrete decisions If the information provided by the book is not entirely true and the interpretation of what is given is an opinion, then the decision made is based on something that is more? likely to be incorrect. So how can a man's life be based on information that isn't always entirely true ?.