How Does Steinbeck Present The Impairments In Of Mice And Men

565 Words2 Pages

Of Mice and Men ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck is a novel about two drifters, George and Lennie, who find work in California’s Salina Valley. Throughout the story, many characters struggle to get though life with their impairments. Characters such as Candy and Lenny suffer from physical impairments, others have mental impairments, while people like Crooks and Curly’s wife deal with social impairments. Physical impairments are shown through the novel. Characters with these impairments have trouble with doing work properly or doing simple tasks. Candy is shown as weak because he is an old man. Since he is weaker than others, he is seen as useless therefore is given easy tasks such as “settin’ out the wash basins” instead of hard labour like the other men. Lennie has trouble doing simple tasks because of his strength. He is unaware of how strong he is which means he often accidently kills animals while patting them as he “di’n’t know you’d get killed so easy.”, since he does not know how to be soft. Lennie’s unknown strength and mental capabilities means he gets into trouble a lot. This shows that physical impairments are shown negatively in the novel. …show more content…

The character that suffers the most is Lennie but George is also shown to have a bit of struggle. It is obvious that Lennie struggles with his mental impairments which cause him to get into trouble as he does not know right from wrong. He often forgets things, “I tried not to forget.” Because of his disability, he has a lot of trouble remembering important details which gets him in trouble with George. George also has issues because he “ain’t so bright” and did not go to school. This means he is unable to get a respectable job and he is forced to “be buckin’ barley”. Lennie and George show that mental impairments badly effects some

Show More
Related

  • Emotionally and Physically Crippled Characters in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lennie's stupidity and carelessness constantly causes him to unintentionally harm people and animals. When he gets into sticky situations, George is there to help him get out of them. Ever since Lennie's Aunt Clara died, George has felt that he has a sense of duty

    Read More

  • Lennie Unintelligent Quotes

    458 Words  | 1 Pages

    Another trait of Lennie’s is that he is often forgetful, he can’t even remember anything that was told to him twenty seconds before. “‘You remember where we’re goin’ now?’ Lennie looked startled and then in embarrassment hid his face against his knees. ‘I forgot again.’” This quote shows that George repeatedly tells Lennie things but he forgets them from one minute to the next. This happened several times such as the time when he forgot how he got kicked out of Weed. This trait effects Lennie because he often forgets important

    Read More

  • Social Outcasts in John Stienbeck´s Of Mice and Men

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Of Mice and Men the character Lennie is big and has a diminished mental capacity. Lennie is s...

    Read More

  • Lennie's Dignity In Of Mice And Men

    1359 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lennie is broken and incomplete in many ways. He has a mental disability which differentiates him from the others. He depends on George for everything and cannot do things on his own even though he is a grown man.

    Read More

  • Why Is Lennie Wrong

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lennie has always been told what to do by George. George really helps him through problems that keep happening during the book. Lennie is incapable to live because he does not know his strength and George has to play the role as a living assistant for Lennie. Lennie does not mean to harm but because of his condition he essentially harms people. In the book it explains the

    Read More

  • Archetypes In Of Mice And Men

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the course of the novel, Lennie is faced with a variety of challenges. The first impediment he encounters is remembering everyday things in general. For example, at one point he thinks he has lost his working ticket when he was never in possession of it in the first place. George and Lennie are run out of the town of Weed because Lennie had once again gotten himself and George in trouble. He saw a girl wearing a soft

    Read More

  • Characteristics And Similes In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    Steinbeck makes Lennie and George well developed, with colourful personalities and appearances at the beginning, as both of them are looking for work during the Great Depression. From reading the first chapter, I feel that I can relate to George because of his wise, parent-like, and rigid personality. George is a very responsible and tries his best to take care of a very mentally unstable person, where getting irritated is very easy. I also experienced a similar situation, but not with a mentally disabled person. My grandfather, a heavy smoker and alcoholic, suffered a lot of mental problems referring to addiction, as well as health problems because he was diagnosed with throat cancer in the last six months of his life. It was a tough time for my family because both of my parents had to work in order to support the family, so I was the only person who could take care of him. Furthermore, he was confined to a hospital bed until the day he passed away. Staying by his side and providing whatever he wanted was very difficult because there was very little communication, besides writing, because he could not talk due to an artificial respirator in his throat. Staying in the hospital for the majority of the time over the course of six months is extremely tough because of school and family problems I had to deal with. This is relatable to the

    Read More

  • The Vulnerability of Innocent Characters in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    Due to child like qualities, Lennie is a person which would be easy prey and a vulnerable person. Lennie is a vulnerable person who is quite dumb. His has an obsession for touching soft thing and this will often lead him in to trouble. But poor Lennie is an innocent person who means no harm to anybody. When he and Curley get into a fight Lennie is too shocked to do any thing. He tries to be innocent but, when told to by George grabs Curley’s fist and crushes it. George is Lennie’s best friend and Lennie does every thing he tells him to do as demonstrated in the fight with “But you tol...

    Read More

  • Ignorance In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    1024 Words  | 3 Pages

    First, when Lennie sticks his head in the scummy water from the stream in the beginning of the book it shows his inability to think things through before he carries through with them. Another example includes when he grabbed the woman’s dress in Weed. He did not think it through when a normal fully mentally capable person would be able to think that grabbing a strange woman’s dress would not be appropriate. Similarly, he almost duplicates the situation except this time instead of finally letting go of the dress he accidentally killed Curley’s wife resulting in a worse outcome than the situation in Weed. Lennie is unable to think for himself in a safe and well opinionated manner, therefore, he needs someone like George to take care of him and prevent him from bad situations. However, the worse part about Lennie’s neverending trilogy of mistakes is that he does not learn from them. He makes the same mistake of killing multiple mice because he pets them too hard and never learns to be more gentle. George states in the novel ,”He’s awright. Just ain’t bright. But he can do anything you tell him.” (Steinbeck 22) This statement shows that though George is telling the boss how well he can work, he is also expressing how he doesn’t make decisions for himself and that he needs George to take care of him. George also says,” Yeah, you forgot. You always forget, an’ I got to talk you out of it.” (Steinbeck 23) This statement also portrays some of the reason he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. Lennie has a very difficult time remembering anything other than instructions that George gives him. George could not have just let Lennie go because he would not be able to make good decisions, nor could he take care of himself on his own, therefore George made the right decision to end Lennie’s

    Read More

  • Systemic Oppression In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    1385 Words  | 3 Pages

    Right off the bat, Lennie is described as lesser, and rather than helped he is given a “slap on the wrist”. To begin with, Lennie is always described as less capable or unable to do certain activities to the extent of others. For example, at the beginning of the book George and Lennie were attempting to get a job. George always said, “He can do anything, just give him a try” (22). George implied that the likelihood of Lennie receiving a job is significantly less due to him being disabled. Lennie being less likely to receive a job due to his mental disability shows discrimination and expresses how difficult it could have been for a mentally handicapped person to get a job during this era. Moving forward, rather than George helping Lennie, Lennie is put down and scolded for his mistakes. During a scene between Lennie and George, George exclaimed, “You forget. You always forget, an’ I got to talk you out of it” (23). As it is not necessarily Lennie’s fault, George is in the wrong to put down Lennie for his actions. However, rather than attempting to help Lennie, George puts him down for his mistakes and then is forced to apologize for his own actions later. Lennie is a prime example of oppression against the mentally disabled in Of Mice and Men.

    Read More

  • Human Experience In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    All human beings begin to develop relationships with each other because these relationships can fill particular needs. Those may be social, physical, physiological or even economic. When you analyse the dense relationship between George and his friend Lennie who is mentally challenged, you start to wonder how they still manage to stick together. George and Lennie stick together because they have a dream, a dream that they want to fulfil even if one of them messes up they still will push through. "I remember about the rabbits, George.” (Page 5)

    Read More

  • Essay On Foreshadowing In Of Mice And Men

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lennie’s uncontrolled strength is by far one of the strongest plot point in Of Mice and Men, as his strength quickly became his downfall. Either way, this may be seen in quotes such as “Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress - jus’ wanted to pet it like a mouse” (I)...Or, “...and he shook her, and her body flopped like a fish” (5)... Quotes like this show that Lennie is unable to control his own strength and desires - he’s mentally and physically unstable in situations where general brain power must be put into effect. Again, revealing Lennie’s great strength suggests that this will be his - among many other people’s -

    Read More

  • Discrimination in the Book “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ntally disabled people prevented Lennie from being trusted and be respected as a human being. In this novel, discrimination that Lennie had to face prevented him from showing his abilities.

    Read More

  • The Sake Of The Future In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although George has the brains in the group, Lennie, who is mentally handicapped, still causes problems very often. Lennie has the body of an adult but the mind of a child. In page 11, George explains the incident that occurred in Weed to Lennie: “‘...well, how the hell did she know you jus’ wanted to feel her dress? She jerks back and you hold on like it was a mouse.’” Lennie enjoys

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Dreams In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    543 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lennie himself had problems such as mental illness which he suffered from causing him to do bad deeds. First in the beginning, George and Lennie was trying to escape weed because, Lennie killed a women from their. Lennie holds small and fragile things in his hand, and does not understand how weak and frail they are, which ends up hurting or killing them.”I like to put things with my fingers, sof’ things”(90). He doesn't have any understanding when he is hurting something when he squeezes it because, he is mentally challenged. The last thing that shows this is he killed Curley's wife as well around the end of the novel.

    Read More

More about How Does Steinbeck Present The Impairments In Of Mice And Men

Open Document