Moral of the story: Retarded people should die because they're useless

I've never read the book. Never seen a movie adaptation. Finally caught this version, and, while I enjoyed it, it seemed pretty obvious how Steinbeck feels about people or animals that aren't useful. It's an old dog, so you have to shoot it in the back of the head. Forget the fact that he brings joy to Candy.

This was obvious foreshadowing of the ending. George had to off Lennie because he was of no use to anyone else, or even himself. Granted, he had just killed a woman, but did that mean George had to shoot him like an old useless dog?

I'm new to this story, and perhaps I should be asking this question on a literature website... But it seems fairly obvious how the author feels. Am I wrong?


Mirror inspector is a job I could really see myself doing.