Mental Impairment In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

“He’s a nice fella,’ said Slim. “Guy don’t need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus’ works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain’t hardly ever a nice fella.” (Steinbeck 40) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck takes place in Soledad, California. It is about two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, who try to make peace and a living on a ranch. Not only does Lennie have an impairment, most of the characters do. It might not be a mental impairment, such as Lennie’s, though. It could be a physical impairment too. A few examples of characters with physical impairments are George, Candy, Curley’s wife, and Crooks. One of the characters who have an impairment is George. George’s impairment is Lennie. “George said ‘He’s my… cousin. I told his old lady I’d take care of him. He got kicked in the head by a horse when he was a kid…” (Steinbeck 22) This quote describes George’s role as Lennie’s guardian because if their boss had known about Lennie being mentally slow he never would have hired both men.

George’s impairment was Lennie. He was always looking out for and protecting Lennie therefore he is not asking for trouble. Crooks’ impairments were that he was an African American and he had back problems, people on the ranch did not want anything to do with him so he was forced to live in a stable buck away from the others. Candy’s impairment was that he had no right hand, this made it a challenge to work on the ranch. Finally, Curley’s wife’s handicap was that she wanted the wrong kind of attention from other men besides her husband, this always caused trouble between Curley and the other men on the ranch. Of course, these characters are not the only within the book that have deficiencies. However, these are just some of the main ones listed and talked about. “They left all the weak ones here,’ she said finally.” (Steinbeck