Lennie in Stenbeck's Of Mice and Men Lennie comes across as a powerful man to us in this book, yet is this the full personality of Lennie Small? No, when doing research on this book, we find out Lennie is a man of anger and mostly weakness. The author makes sure we have a clear and precise account of Lennie and how he feels, how he is angered and how he is upset. The author describes this well and helps make it clear in the way he describes Lennie, and uses words and animals to portray him. The author makes us see Lennie in many ways such as different types of phrasing and sentences. In Lennie's normal everyday life, he finds that anger and weakness are necessary everyday feelings of ranch workers and people losing dreams. People who are classified under the category of great physical strength are normally associated with some form of animal, person or thing. Lennie in this case is classified as a bear, giving us a sense off strength. Such examples of bear-like actions would be the mangling of Curley's hand. Curley's small masculine hands are no match for Lennie's large, strong, bear- like paws giving us the conclusion of the mangled hand. Lennie is a big soft man who cares for his one and only friend, but also has a bad temper. He likes to have pets, yet Lennie is very strong and doesn't realise this, and once again, bear against mouse, he kills it, only by mistake. He does not come across as intimidating to anyone accept Curley. Curley hates Lennie, because he does not like big guys and really despises him because of his strength and just wants to beat him up all the time, making Lennie seem like an easy angered person. Such examples of bear-like phrases and descriptions are: "Dragging his feet a little as bears drag his paws". Yet this isn't the only animal Lennie is referred to, other examples include, being strong as a bull and even Lennie growled back to his seat.
Lennie’s most powerful strength is his physical strength. In the beginning of the book John Steinbeck compared Lennie to an animal. Steinbeck wrote “ He walked heavily, dragging his feet a
Lennie relies on others to think for him. He won’t act or react unless he’s told to. When he’s getting punched in the face by Curley, Lennie doesn’t even flinch until George tells him to:
is in the air. Animals begin to scatter. Two men have arrived on the scene,
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.
One of Lennie's many traits is his forgetfulness. He easily forgets what he is supposed to do, but he somehow never forgets what he is told. An example of how Lennie is forgetful is when he has the mice in his pocket and when he went to pet them they bit his finger. “Lennie picked up the dead mouse and looked at with a sad face. When they bit him he pinched them, and by doing that he crushed their heads” (page 5) . This is important because he knew that if he squeezed their heads they would die, but since he is forgetful, he squeezed anyway. Another example of how Lennie is forgetful is when he grabbed Curley's hand and crushed it. “ Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it. Lennie squeezed on until George came running in shouting ‘let go’. The next moment Curley was on the ground wailing while he held his crushed hand” (page 64). This event is important because Lennie had held on, not knowing what to do next, until George told him what to do. A final exampl...
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
Lennie is depicted in a very childlike manner throughout Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Accordingly, he acts in a manner that is persistent with a child in that his motivations precisely lead to his actions. He does not act in a pure sense of dishonesty, reflective of the purity that is peculiar to someone who is like a kid at heart.
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’s innocence and inability to recognize his own strength is shown through his interaction with the mice. Lennie intends to innocently and affectively
Lennie’s unintentional mistakes resulted in the sudden end for him, but was done in the best way possible. As Lennie would’ve been subjected to a life of loss, running and suffering, George correctly made the decision in euthanizing him. While contemplating whether or not to euthanize him, George knew he very well could but it wasn’t the easiest decision to make on his part. If George wouldn’t of made the decision he did, Lennie would’ve had to run for the rest of his life with no account of what happened or what to do due to his mental illness. He would’ve been seen as a criminal and hunted down like animal which is inhumane and cruel. Although his mishaps weren’t meant to be as extreme as they were, the consequences were foreshadowed throughout
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 -
As aforementioned they lived in the Great Depression a time where achieving the American Dream was almost impossible to do, especially with all the farms being lost in Oklahoma. Most of the character's perspectives of Lennie was that he was most simply a passive aggressive retard. Later in the novel the reader notices that he is incredible strong which serves to positive and negative effects in the story. Also, his thinking pattern is rather awkward or odd for someone of his age because what keeps him concentrated is this depiction of a farm where they will ¨tend the rabbits..build up a fire in the stove¨ (Steinbeck 14) which makes him mentally ill. When something is said to him about animals, he would instantly recognise with this desire, but for everything else, he is pretty much a useless man but other people who were willing to listen like Slim and Crooks who get to know him understood that he is if anything vulnerable which is what many characters were even
There are many “Lennies” in our world today, and we all need to help and care for others who are less fortunate than us. Lennie has influenced me to think how to be loyal to people, and how I can help people with disabilities. Lennie is a very strange character, but some of his characteristics we all wish we still had or more of. Remember we don’t have to be like the people back in the time this story takes place, we should enjoy life’s
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.
Furthermore, throughout the story the reader is engaged with sympathy for Lennie because of his ironic characterization. The way Lennie is characteristics makes him an antithesis to