Authors often put the main character protagonist in a situation so that the reader feels sympathy towards them. Two boys live in different places, but both have one thing in common, they are outsiders. The first boy isn’t even a boy anymore, he has grown in size, and yet his mind remains innocent and unknowing. The other boy, his legs weak and frail, with a head too big for his own body, stares at his reflection and knows he will never be able to do the things other boys do, and his mind, unlike the other, is very knowledgeable and understands the world. The man looks into his reflection unknowingly, smiling stupidly. Lennie, the man, is from Of Mice and Men and is the character author John Steinbeck has chosen as the sympathetic character. …show more content…
Little Doodle, the young boy, is from the short story The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst, a story about a physically disabled boy and his pride-consumed older Brother, who though loves him is partially at fault for Doodle’s demise. Both elicited sympathy due to their unique situations: Lennie, mentally disabled and overwhelmed by his big body, and Doodle, marked as an outcast and told he couldn’t do anything too exciting because he was frail. Though they are both sympathetic, there are similarities and differences are what reveals which character elicits more sympathy from the reader. Therefore go Doodle and ladybug evoke sympathy from the reader, Doodle is a more sympathetic character because of the situation he is in as a child and as someone who is aware of his disability because it holds him back. Doodle and Lennie share many similarities in their stories, outcomes, and situations.
Both Doodle and Lennie are judged due to their incapabilities which cloud their best traits to an onlooker. both also want desperately to please a prominent figure in their life. For Doodle, all he wants is to make Brother proud and work hard to reach their goals of stretching his physical capability. They both are, anyway, trapped within the confines / limits of their bodies. Doodle has the mental capacity and the determination to reach great heights, but his body holds him back because he is too frail to do many things, so he has to find other means of accomplishing his dreams. Lennie, however, is trapped in the confines of his body, but in a different way. His body, too strong and big for Lennie to operate, holds him back and eventually is the cause of his death. Lennie doesn’t understand much, but he grasps that in order to be able to tend to the rabbits and live out his dream, he must behave. Therefore, bringing to the next similarity, that they each have their own dreams. Lennie’s dream was living on the farm and tending to the rabbits and Doodles being able to make his Brother proud, to stretch his physical limits to the average boy, and she eventually, sell vanilla with Brother and live in Old Woman’s Swamp. Lastly, Doodle and Lennie both depend on upon a significant other who was also involved in the cause of their
deaths. While Lennie and Doodle share many similarities, they also have a range of differences between them. The main difference between them is that Lennie is an adult, while Doodle is a child. I was looking deeper into the characters, Doodle has the mind of a very intelligent being, while Lennie mental disability, leaving him with the mind of a child. Due to Lennie’s disability, he doesn’t ever fully realize that he has a mental disability, while Doodle, having a physical disability, comes to this saddening realization. upon the deaths of these characters, he is unaware he is about to die because his death was quick and painless. Doodle, however, is aware of his final moments. (The audience knows this because of the aftermath of his death and his last, desperate words.) Finally, the last difference between the two characters is how their best friend, in their stories, treat them and they justify their actions. George’s cruelty is born out of concern, to create an external shell for Lennie so that no one finds out his weaknesses, but Brother’s cruelness towards Doodle is born of pride. Doodle evokes more sympathy from the reader for many reasons. Doodle knows he has a disability because he can’t do things most kids can do. Plus, he was told by everyone that he is too weak and even how they had always thought he would die. He was trapped by the limitations set by others and his own physical disabilities. “…and at times I was mean to Doodle. One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had thought that he would die.” This quote, on page 346, depicts a moment where he is put down by others and being a boy, at the age of six, knowing that his family had thought he would die, and then he still might die. Doodle knows he has a disability because the doctors and his family have told him that he is too frail and weak to do anything, and even Brother had shown him his coffin. This cruelty adds to the fact that later in the story Doodle tells his Brother that he can’t walk because he is too weak. This saddens the reader, because Doodle believes, what he is being told, himself. Adding to the true devastation is the fact that he was a child; he had a long life ahead and that if it weren’t for pride and the storm, he might have had a full, happy, and plentiful life. The desperation in his voice shows he knows he is in danger and knew he desperately needed to , “When the deafening peal of thunder had died, and in the moments before the rain arrives, I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind, cry out, ’ Brother Brother don’t leave me!’” The aftermath of Doodles body after his death leave the reader to believe he knew he was dying at in his final moments, “… he had been bleeding from the mouth and his neck was stained a brilliant red.” It is extremely likely due to having felt pain sputtering up blood. He also most likely had seen the blood and knew he was in grave danger.The position of his body ( his arms and legs covering his head) also leads the reader to believe that he was trying to comfort himself from the pain or shield himself from the storm. Another reason why Doodle is viewed as sympathy evoking is because Doodle suffered Brother’s cruelty only because of pride, not because of love, therefore there was no valid reason as to why he suffered. “ ’What are you crying for?’ ask Daddy, but I couldn’t answer. They did not know that I did it for myself, that Pride to sleep I was, spoke above all their voices, that Doodle only walked because I was ashamed.” Doodle’s own Brother was ashamed of him and wanted Doodle to be normal, and Doodle saw this. It was basically taught that he wasn’t perfect the way he was and that makes him elicit more sympathy because everyone should view themselves with confidence. Brother didn’t teach Doodle to walk because he wanted him to be happy, but because of his pride and therefore is why he’s selfishly hard and cruel towards Doodle. Doodle and Lennie are both main, sympathetic characters a reader can come to love very dearly by the end of their stories. Though they are both sympathetic, Doodle is more sympathetic because of many aspects that John Hurst has portrayed that aren’t shown in Lennie’s character and story. the differences between the two, determine which is more sympathetic to the reader. Doodle is more sympathetic to his position as a child who has a lot to live for, his disability, and the way he was treated with cruelty by his own Brother and his one and only best friend.
To improve one’s understanding of how the narrator changes, one must first be acquainted with the situation: Doodle is born with a heart condition. Therefore, he will not be competent to do what ordinary kids could be capable of. No one anticipated for him to live very long. The reality that Doodle will not be able to do normal activities makes his brother, the narrator, miserable. How or why? The narrator has always sought after a brother whom to play, run, and box with.
In the novel Of Mice and Men and ‘The Scarlet Ibis’, the characters Lennie and Doodle both have their dreams destroyed. Another reason as to why they cannot fulfill their dreams is because they both are handicapped. One point as to why they cannot fulfill their dreams is because they are dead. Lastly Doodle and Lennie were not accepted in normal life. Doodle’s and Lennie’s dreams are destroyed and altered their lives as well as everyone around them.
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.
Lennie Small, a mentally impaired man, is first introduced to us traveling with George. George, however, is not related to Lennie. Lennie travels with George because no one else understands him like he does. Lennie says, “Because…because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you…” (Steinbeck 14). Lennie believes if George ever left him that he could live in a cave by himself and not bother anyone again (Steinbeck 12). Lennie realizes he would be alone without George, but he never has known anyone else to depend on but George, and from that, they have a bond, a friendship. This shows Lennie’s need for his relationship with George.
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.
When Doodle was born, the narrator "...wanted more than anything else someone to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and someone to perch within the top fork of the great pine behind the barn..."(595). Upon discovering Doodle was not only crippled but also not "'all there'", the narrator selfishly decides to kill his little brother by suffocation. His plan was halted when he watched his brother grinned right at him. Though the narrator didn't kill Doodle, the narrator treated his little brother with cruelty to advance his own desires. Two instances are the reason Doodle walked and Doodle's training in his brother's program. Firstly, the reason that the narrator is determined to teach Doodle to walk was not solely out of kindness. "When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk, so I set out to teach him"(597). The narrator is embarrassed that he has a brother that's physically unable to meet the narrator's expectations as what his brother should be. Yet, the narrator successfully taught Doodle how to walk, but in doing so, the narrator gained a false sense of infallibility that's equal only to his pride. The narrator thus created "...a terrific development program for him, unknown to mama and daddy, of course” (599). Several obstacles impeded the progress of the program, resulting in the brothers to double their efforts. The narrator made Doodle"...swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn't lift an oar. Wherever we went, I purposely walked fast, and although he kept up, his face turned red and his eyes became glazed. Once he could go no further, so he collapsed on the ground and began to cry"(601). Blinded by his desire to satisfy his pride, he became ignorant of the fact that as a sick child Doodle is unable to overexert himself, but the
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.
Was George to harsh or too fast with his decision to kill Lennie? Ever since Lennie was born he has needed help “living” and it started with his aunt Clara. When his aunt Clara died Lennie needed someone to help him with his everyday life and someone that could be there and tell him what to do. Lennie starts to travel with a good family friend George. In the book “Of Mice and Men” there is many cases where Lennie just “holds on” to George. 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 because Lennie was unstable and George knows lennie didn't mean to harm anything. He doesn't know his own strength and George really wasn't qualified to help Lennie learn that he is powerful beyond measure.
In particular, the thought of owning a farm on which he can tend and pet his own rabbits appeals to Lennie's childlike desire for fantasy brought to life and his desire for a safe place to call home. In the end, Lennie's motivations throughout Steinbeck's novella are nothing short of "the inarticulate and powerful yearning of all men," elemental ones that lie within the heart of all men from their childhood: safety, love, comfort, physical pleasure, and a little bit of heaven in
exploded. "Come on ya big bastard, get up on your feet. No big son of
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about the friendship between George Milton and Lennie Small, who travel together due to the fact that Lennie suffered a childlike mental illness and someone needed to take care of him. Lennie only listens to his friend George, no matter what George may say. This novel shows characteristics of their true friendship and George's compassion towards his companion. George shows acts of love and kindness out of sympathy for Lennie, yet he also seems to show an unconscious effort to make up for Lennie’s mental impairment.
Since Lennie's mind works like a child's, due to his handicap, the other men did not treat him as an equal. Ther...
One feels a drag of sympathy on the heart at the conclusion of the book, Of Mice and Men, when Lennie states, “‘We got each other, that's what, that gives a hoot in hell about us.’”(104). Sympathy is in high demand throughout this novel, set during one of the darkest times in America. Steinbeck incites more than just sympathy for many of his multidimensional characters, an emotional appeal that captivates audiences from all walks of life. Steinbeck’s classic novel, Of Mice and Men, incorporates various characters that create sympathy in the reader, such as Lennie, George, and Crooks. The most sympathetic character created throughout Steinbeck’s novel is Lennie Smalls, whose untapped mental strength is in direct conflict with his overdeveloped physical strength.
John Steinbeck uses similes to build and create powerful characters that touch the hearts of readers. Throughout the story Lennie`s character grows to be stronger and stronger through Steinbeck`s use of similes. When George and Lennie arrive at the farm, George introduces himself and Lennie to the boss. George compliments on Lennie being a hell of a good worker and tells the boss Lennie was “Strong as a bull” (Steinbeck 22). Up till this quote, Lennie is thought to be a huge man, shapeless of face who walked very heavily until Steinbeck`s use of similes help uncover Lennie`s true character. John Steinbeck illustrates Lennie`s body and strength by comparing him to a large, heavy and physically powerful animal such as a bull. The use of similes helps in indirect characterization as well and adds to Lennie`s physical appearance and age. The use of similes in this quote helps to create a more powerful character and bring more ...
Steinbeck shows that people will trust others because of their personal prejudices. Because of his mental disability, Lennie often acts in inappropriate ways that cause both him and George to lose their jobs. George complains to Lennie that “I got you! You can’t keep a job and lose me ever’ job I get. Jus’ keep me shoving’ all over the country all the time. An’ the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out” (Steinbeck 11). Just like in Weed, a town that they have once worked at, Lennie and George has to hide from the townspeople because Lennie grabbed a woman’s dress in panic. Although Lennie acts with innocent intentions, the people around him simply do not spend the time to understand them. As soon as they move into the new farm, the boss and Curley display suspicion and even open hostility toward Lennie. They make their judgments about him before even trying to have a chance know him better. Even Crooks, also abandoned by society, regards him with contempt and disdain when Lennie first tries to enter his room. Lennie has no intention of hurting the other people, yet the people around him always feel uncomfortable around h...