The author makes use of naturalism and presents Lennie as a human beast. Lennie possesses the body of a bear, but his actions are similar to those of a dog. He is able bodied but feeble minded. The combination of the preceding traits and his fondness of petting make him responsible for many murders. He has a nebulous and robust physical description. He possesses the mind of a child who requires supervision. George, the security of petting soft things, and a dream farm represent the meat and potatoes of his life. Lennie faces the mechanism of natural selection like any other animal. Unlike George, Lennie is a minion and is described in an undistinguished manner. His first appearance in the book (page 2, paragraph 3, 2nd last and last lines) emphasizes his childish and animal like behavior. He drags his feet and carries his sloped shoulders. His arms hang loosely to his sides. He wears a shapeless hat and carries a blanket roll while …show more content…
following George. He has pale eyes, contrary to George’s wary eyes. The author uses a simile comparing Lennie’s gait to that of a bear. “….dragging his feet a little the way a bear drags his paws.” He has a shapeless face unlike humans. Animals are not as unique from other members of the species as humans are. His big and pale eyes symbolize his lack of vigilance. They also connote his dependency and faith in George. He is not circumspect because he knows that George will protect him. Lennie and George have a parent-child/leader-follower relationship. Lennie Small’s life is chiefly swayed by his faith and love for George and petting soft things. Lennie does anything George tells him to do. For instance, once George asks Lennie to jump into the Sacramento River. He is incapable of swimming, nevertheless he jumps in. George says to Slim, “I turns to Lennie and says, ‘jump in.’ An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke.” The evidence proves that Lennie trusts George more than himself. He is vulnerable (weak minded) and therefore dependent on George for protection. Lennie has a weakness of petting soft things. He has to flee with George from Weed because of being accused of rape. He has no intention of raping the woman in reality. All he wants is to feel her velvety dress (page 41, last paragraph). He has a passion of fondling soft materials. He reluctantly hands George his dead mouse and says, “I wasn’t doin’ nothing bad with it, George. Jus’ strokin’ it.” He feels overjoyed when Slim gives his consent to pet the puppies in the barn. When asked how he likes the puppies he compliments, “He’s brown an’ white jus’ like I wanted.” He wants a farm where he would live with George and pet rabbits. For his dream to change into reality, he needs to stay out of trouble. Lennie’s idiotic, forgetful unsophisticated nature make him troublesome.
Slim, an insightful ranchman, calls him dim witted. He says to George, “It jus’ seems kinda funny a cuckoo like him and a smart guy like you travelin’ together.” George tells Lennie to keep his mouth shut in front of the boss before he starts working. He fears that if Lennie speaks, he will reveal his witless nature.This would minimize their chance of getting employed.Lennie recollects George’s advice and says to himself, “I….I ain’t gonna……say a word.” Lennie is unable to remember his own aunt (Clara), who took care of him before George did. He says to George, “I remember a lady who used to give em’ to me.” Later George reminds him that she is his aunt. In comparison to others, Lennie is idiotic. He is defenseless and dependent. George warns him, “Somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself.” Steinbeck emphasizes Lennie is unfit to survive because of his idiotic nature. George protects him against others and his own
foolishness. Although Lennie is bird brained, he has a well-built body. Many times he pets mice harshly which results in their death. When he takes out a dead mouse from his pocket, he tells George that he didn’t kill it this time. George often talks about Lennie’s hunky body. He says, “Lennie ain’t handy but this Curley punk is gonna get hurt if he messes around with Lennie.” When Slim calls Lennie dumb, George argues, “He ain’t bright, but he’s a good worker.” Good physical health is vital for being a good ranch worker. His physical superiority and mental inferiority play an important role in his life and many others’ lives. Lennie’s childish brain is trapped in his sturdy adult body which leads to many murders. Lennie wants to protect himself from Curley while being beaten by him. When George gives his consent, he holds Curley’s hand. However, he has a firm grip and breaks Curley’s hand. After examining Curley’s hand Slim states, “Looks to me like ever’ bone in his han’ is bust.” Furthermore, when Curley’s wife opposes to his hefty petting, he panicks and squeezes her neck. (Page 91, 1st-3rd paragraph). This results in her death (page 91, last paragraph). Steinbeck threw a light on the fact that Lennie is immature and couldn’t control his urges. This caused him to commit many murders throughout the story. The author reveals Lennie’s beastly nature. He had exceptional muscle power but a menial mind which made him vulnerable just like animals. The author’s application of naturalism helps magnify the theme: survival of the fittest. In the end, George shot Lennie in the head and gave him the best possible death. Lennie was mentally handicapped and hence was not fit to survive. Symbolism was used. Candy’s dog and Lennie were both symbols of weakness. They were eliminated because of being impaired in some way or the other. The dog was old and futile. Lennie was mentally impaired. Before Lennie was shot, a water snake was eaten by a heron in the nearby pool. The author used symbolism and imagery here. The water snake represented the weaker of the two organisms/ the one less fit to survive .Ultimately Lennie was killed by George although he was physically stronger. This is because he was weak-minded and couldn’t control his urges which made him inferior to George. One of the many themes of the book was that the powerful always oppress the weak.
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.
Lennie, like a mouse, is helpless. Lennie relies on George to think for him like mice rely on scraps of food from the dinner table to eat.
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.
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
At the beginning, the author describes his movement using a metaphor, as Lennie “[drags] his feet… the way a bear drags his paws” (p.2), to show that he is much alike a bear physically. In addition, Steinbeck uses a simile to emphasize Lennie’s animal-like behaviour, as he “[drinks] wit long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse” (p.3). By comparing his physical and behavioural characteristics, this can foreshadow that the author implies that Lennie is seen as more animal than human because of his metal disabilities. George further makes it evident when he infers that “somebody [would] shoot [him] for a coyote if [he] was by [himself]” (p.12). This shows that people are scared of him and his unpredictable, animal-like behaviour because of the lack of understanding about mental health during the early 1900s. Furthermore, this can be the foundation for the theme where the lack of communication and understanding with the mentally disabled can lead to dire and tragic
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...
Lennie was not very smart and couldn't do much by himself. He had to be told what to do or he wouldn't do anything at all. He fits all the profiles for a retarded person. He doesn't have any self-control. When he starts to panic he gets out of control and even kills Curly's wife because she starts to scream. Lennie loves animals and can't stop talking about them. He always says that when they get their own place that he wants lots of rabbits, his favorite animal. To him George is like his father figure, since Lennie never really had any parents. He is easily amused and panics quickly.
Since the beginning of the book, Steinbeck characterizes Lennie as a man who sees the world through the perspective of a child, as if it is a dream. Lennie is a big guy, but he acts like a baby. In the beginning of the story, after George threw the dead mouse Lennie was petting, Lennie was “…‘Blubberin’ like a baby!” (9). This juvenile action demonstrates Lennie’s immaturity and childish
Following the beginning, Lennie is seen as a bit on the softer side contrary to George who was a heavy-tempered individual. We later find out that Lennie has a mental illness implied by language, communication and actions towards George and others. Demonstration of his illness was implied by: "I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead—because they was so little. I wish’t we’d get the rabbits pretty soon, George. They ain’t so little." (Steinbeck 4). Lennie’s childish personality and mistakes in the novel somewhat foreshadowed future events. George told Slim about the incident in Weed: “Well he seen this girl in a red dress...he just wants to touch everything he likes” (Steinbeck 41). George harshly remarked that his mistakes could get him in serious trouble, which was a vital, empowering statement within the novel that hinted at a dark
To begin, Lennie has this big dream of George and him living on their own land, being their own bosses, and tending to his own rabbits. Lennie’s major obstacle in achieving his dream is that he is slower than most people for his age. Lennie acts like a child making George the responsible adult. Lennie also listens to whatever George says because Lennie looks up to George almost like he is his brother. Lennie also has a tendency to forget what he is told:
Although John Steinbeck’s novelette Of Mice and Men included a vast away of interesting characters, Lennie was one that sparked my interest the most. Small’s personality is similar to that of an innocent child’s; he is also often depicted like an animal, as he is as strong as a bull (as Milton describes him), but acts like a dog. Small is also mentally handicapped, feels security when it comes to touching soft items, and does not understand many abstract ideas. We can look at all of these traits through his devoted dependency towards George. Though he acts this way, he does not actually comprehend this idea of loyalty. As a result, he often gets into trouble without the intention of doing so, and once he does, only defines his troubles in terms of consequences, as he says “George goin’ to give me hell” or “George ain’t gonna’ let me tend them rabbits no more.” Despite his repetitive behavior, he never understands the reason why his actions are incorrect. In the beginning of the story, an instance the reader can observe his animal-like (or childish) behavior is when he slurps...
Lennie apologized to George for killing the mice; he told him that the reason for killing the mice was because “they bit my[Lennie’s] fingers” but he only “pinched their heads a little”(Steinbeck 10). Lennie’s guilt drives him to apologize about the mice but he appears to underestimate his own strength because he claimed that he vaguely pinched their heads, but Lennie being a vast man, that couldn't have been the case. He didn't know the consequences of pinching the mice even after he had done it so many times. This shows the lack of perception he holds, meaning he can't become cognizant of the things happening around him on his own, causing the reader to initiate sympathy for Lennie. Lennie’s immaturity is so big it can be misunderstood for cleverness. George sharply asks Lennie to give him the object from his pocket but he claims “ I ain't got nothin’”but later on admits he has a dead mouse but [George] insists to “ have it”,but George insisted to have the mouse then he “slowly obeyed”(Steinbeck 5-6). It appears as if Lennie was being clever but by handing the mice to George, his childish behavior is revealed. His ingenuous acts portray identically to a child influencing the reader to gain sensitivity to the way Lennie is treated. The way Lennie understands the world and process thoughts makes him mentally stable, for a child. Not only is he innocent but he is also ironically characterized.
1.) George- A small man who travels with, and takes care of, Lennie. He frequently talks about how much better his life would be without having Lennie to take care of. George's behavior is motivated by the desire to protect Lennie and, eventually, he wants to lead them both to the farm of their dreams.
Lennie: Lennie, in contrast with George, is a large man with pale eyes, wide shoulders, and a shapeless face. He possesses physical strength of monstrous proportions and he is fond of petting small creatures. Because he usually finds trouble from his words and actions, he allows his partner to do all of the talking for him.