Easter Seals once said “The worst thing about a disability is that people see it before they see you.” In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, there are two men Lennie and George who are traveling to a ranch where they can get away from Lennie’s troubles he had in the last town. Throughout the novel, Lennie obeys George’s commands and stays loyal at all times. Lennie Smalls is one of the main characters in the novel and plays a big role. Lennie is a huge, shapeless man who is sometimes referred to as an animal. Lennie has childlike behaviors and is innocent and mentally handicapped with no ability to understand abstract concepts like death. He is extremely strong and does not realize it due to his disability. Lennie does not quite understand loyalty and thinks that …show more content…
He only thinks “George is going to give me hell” and is devoted to George like a dog with his owner. Lennie feels secure when he pets soft things and it makes him feel safe from the cruel world he is living in. He starts out petting a dead mouse in the novel and feels safe. Although people will disapprove of his actions, he does not see anything wrong in what he is doing. Lennie’s outrageous size and strength along with his lack of intelligence makes him dangerous to others. George is there to keep him in check and make sure he stays out of trouble. Lennie soon finds himself in trouble once again when he kills Curly’s Wife by snapping her neck on accident trying to keep her quiet when he was trying to help her. Lennie runs away to the riverside where George told him to hide if he was in any trouble. George and all the ranch workers go on a search for him. George knows exactly where Lennie is so he strays off from the rest of the men and finds Lennie. George tells Lennie to look into the river and imagine their rabbit farm he wishes to have
Lennie dreams of living on a wide open ranch with George where he tends to the fluffy little rabbits he loves so much. Nevertheless, Lennie sadly never reaches his ultimate goal as his flaw finally becomes his fatal flaw. Lennie kills Curley 's wife by shaking her so hard that her neck breaks. He does not kill her on purpose but Lennie does not know his own strength. He is only shaking her like that because he wants her to stop yelling. Curley 's wife observes that Lennie is "jus ' like a big baby" (Steinbeck 99) and invites him to stroke her soft hair. Lennie begins to feel her hair and likes it very much indeed, which leads him to pet it too hard. When she started to complain, he panicked and started to try to silence her. He was afraid that George would not let him be part of the dream anymore if Curley 's wife got mad at what he did. So he 's shaking her to try to protect his part in the dream but he kills her and the dream too. Lennie observes that he has "done a bad thing" (Steinbeck 100) and covers her body with hay. Lennie is hiding in the brush where George had told him to hide when he got into trouble. George finally emerges to get Lennie while he is an emotional mess. He then tells Lennie to take off his hat as he continues to recount "how it will be" (Steinbeck 104) for them. He orders Lennie to kneel and pulls out Carlson 's Luger. As the voices of the other men in the search party near their location, George tells Lennie one more time "about the rabbits,"(Steinbeck 106) tells Lennie that they 're going to get the farm right away, and shoots his companion in the back of the
George realizes in the end of the book Lennie has done too much harm and needs to essentially go away. George then shoots Lennie in the back of the head because Lennie couldn't live on his own if he were to run away from Curly and the rest of the gang of workers coming after him. George did the right thing
Back in the day far too often people looked down on or took advantage of people with mental or physical disabilities. Those are the kids nowadays that ride the short bus, are in a wheelchair, or their brain or other organs or limbs never completely developed so they have trouble completing simple everyday activities. About 15% of the people in the world today have either a significant mental or physical disability (according to Disabilities of America website). In John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men, Lennie Small displays three common qualities of a person with mental disabilities. Lennie is innocent, loyal, and has amazing physical strength.
The background into a character is one of the most important necessities for understanding a book. John Steinbeck uses certain repetitive imagery whenever describing a character to give readers an insight on their mannerisms and peculiarities. Among the images Steinbeck uses, the dog and the bear are the most important. John Steinbeck develops the persona and character of Lennie, a big, strong farmhand that is small minded,by the animal imagery that he uses to describe him and through this Steinbeck conveys his overall message about farmhands of the time.
John Steinbeck wrote a story about two men that only had each to depend on. Many of George and Lennie's struggles come from things they cannot control such as Lennie's mental issues. George and Lennie are very poor and they work on farms together, but they have to move a lot because Lennie always does something stupid. The greatest tragedy in Mice and Men was when Lennie was left alone with Curley's wife. She was the reason why Lennie ended up being killed. She knew of to manipulate others to get her way and that is what she relies on most of the time.
In the book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George is responsible for Lennie's death. George knows Lennie is capable of making bad decisions but he continues to leave him alone, for example when Lennie is touching the girl's dress. George even admits that he left Lennie,“‘I was jus' a little bit off, and I heard all the yellin’” (41). George needs to monitor Lennie more and not just leave him, because chances are Lennie is going to get into trouble. If George would have stayed near Lennie when he touched the girl's dress, the entire incident could have been prevented. Lennie knows no better so George needs to help him out by watching his moves and making sure none of his actions will contribute to someone being hurt, like the puppy and
Lennie Small; A simple man with a simple mind in a not-so-simple world. Lennie is mentally handicapped, living in the 1930’s during the Great Depression with his friend and caretaker, George. Because Lennie has the mind of a child, but the strength and appearance of a 30-year-old man, he often gets into trouble. He poorly tries to hide the evidence of his wrongdoings and cannot fully understand the consequences of his own actions which ultimately results in his death. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Lennie’s death is foreshadowed in conversations, Lennie’s tendency of petting animals too roughly, and the events that happen in Weed and on the ranch.
With his disability, he needs something to feel connected to. He loves to pet furry and soft things. In chapter one in “Of Mice and Men”, Lennie and George are walking along a dirt road, on there way to a ranch. George discovers Lennie playing with something in his pocket. Lennie states to George before the dead mouse was taken away. ““ I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along”” (Steinbeck 6) . In order to prove that Lennie is not smart enough to fulfill the American Dream, Steinbeck creates Lennie to seem as not normal as possible. Steinbeck places Lennie in a state, where he does not understand right from wrong. He does not know nor understand, that playing with a deceased critter is not only gross but unacceptable as a
Author Julian Steinbeck creates some of the most dynamic characters in literature in his novel Of Mice and Men. George and Lennie are examples of strength and weakness. They hoped that one day they would be able to achieve their “American dream.” They wanted to have their own farm raising their own animals and crops. George is short, but a smart fellow. He travels to a ranch with a tall guy named Lennie who happens to be mentally challenged. In the end, each are pushed beyond the limits of what human beings should endure. George kills his companion and best friend yet he is innocent because he did it to protect Lennie, they were best friends, and the other men would’ve done worse stuff if George didn’t shoot Lennie himself.
In the end of mice and men by John Steinbeck, George kills his best friend Lennie after he gets in trouble. The big questions is, did george have the right to kill lennie after what he did? The answer is yes because of the consequences that lennie would have faced, putting Lennie out of his misery, and it would be just a matter of time before Lennie had another "accident" and killed someone else.
First off, Lennie is an uneasy character with a mental disability in the book Of Mice And Men. He stays with George throughout the book, but is not a stable companion. He is a sympathetic character that causes more damage than he knows he does, yet he understands what he puts George through. He does not fully understand the main ideas in life, and does not put them together, as to what is right and what is wrong. Lennie often mentions running away from George to go live in a cave because he has so much pressure on him to act like the average man. George has to repeat many times what he has said, because Lennie’s brain cannot process what he is trying to tell him. He often loses control of his emotions, and attempts things he does not consider
The characteristics of mice are simple and feebleminded. A mouse is helpless, timid and oblivious. Few characters in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men possess such characteristics. Throughout the novel, Lennie exhibits the qualities associated with mice.
In the Salinas River Valley, after the Great Depression, there were a large number of unemployed workers seeking jobs. In the fiction novel "Of Mice and Men," by John Steinbeck, Lennie Small is among one of those men. Lennie and his friend George both have just received jobs on a ranch as farm workers. What brings the two together is their dream to someday own their own land. Lennie has a lot of character and personality traits that define him. One trait that he has is he is very forgetful. Another trait he has is he is very curious. A final trait he has is that he is very reliant. Although he might not be the intelligent person in the book, he has a very well developed personality. Lennie demonstrates his personality and character traits throughout the novel.
Curley's wife, an accident that seals his own fate and destroys not only his dreams but George's and Candy's as well. In the beginning Lennie used to pet mice that his Aunt Clara used to give him, he would always end up killing them because he didn't know his own strength. Lennie never killed any pet or person purposely; he pets too roughly and kills them accidentally. An example of his rough tendencies is in the first chapter (page7) when Lennie wants to keep a dead mouse and George wouldn't let him Lennie says" Uh-uh. Jus' a dead mouse, George.
In my opinion, Lennie Small is the most interesting character in Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck does a very good job describing and characterizing Lennie's personality. Lennie's character is, indeed, quite unique. A large man with enormous strength, yet kind and childlike, he seems to find joy in simple life pleasures like petting a furry animal and making the water ripple. Lennie's greatest difficulty seems to be remembering; and it is the lack of the ability to remember that ultimately leads to his tragedy at the end of the book. In the novel, Steinbeck seems to reinforce Lennie's characteristics of strength, kindness, childlike manner, and somewhat animal-like personality. In this paper, I will focus on these characteristics.