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Character study of mice and men
Strengths and weaknesses in the novel of mice and men
Character study of mice and men
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Lennie Small is a very large, strong man with the mind of a young child. He often makes mistakes that he cannot handle. He travels with his friend, George Milton to farms where they are vegetable laborers. Their ultimate goal is to have a piece of land of their own. The book “Of Mice and Men” is a fictional novella written by John Steinbeck and was published in 1837. Throughout the story, Lennie often makes mistakes he never means to make. Lennie is very big and strong. He loves animals and has the mind of a very small child.
In the story, it is easy to tell Lennie has the mind of very small child. Lennie loves animals like most children. Lennie is also forgetful like a child and cannot be trusted to hold on to his own things. On page 4 and 5, Lennie forgot where he was going. When he forgot his papers, George had to hold on to them. Lennie barely knows right from wrong, like a child. On page 9. he has a dead mouse and keeps it. He doesn’t know it is weird or wrong to keep dead things. It is clear Lennie’s intelligence is about the same as a very young child.
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Lennie is very strong as seen throughout the story.
As described on page 2, Lennie is a huge man, and is described like a bear dragging his paws. On page 22, George said that Lennie is “strong as a bull”. Lennie has enormous strength but barely seems to realize it. On page 10, Lennie states how he will just pinch a mouse’s head and it would die. On page 63, while Curley is beating up Lennie, Lennie grabs Curley's hand and squeezes it and breaks Curley’s hand. On page 87, Lennie tells how he smacked a puppy and killed it. Then on page 91, Lennie was stroking Curley's wife’s hair. Curley’s wife screamed because Lennie was hurting her. Lennie freaks out, shakes her, and snaps her neck. These examples show how strong Lennie
is. Throughout the story, it is clear that Lennie is not very bright. Lennie is always forgetful too. On page 4-5, Lennie even forgot where he was going. Later on page 4-5, Lennie thinks he lost his business card and does not remember that George has it. It is clear that Lennie has not received a proper education and has unproper grammar. On page 6, Lennie says “ I ain’t gonna say nothin”. On page 40 and 41, George talks about how Lennie did not know that George was going to get him killed. One time George told Lennie to jump into the river so he did and almost drowned. Lennie did not even know that George was the reason he almost died. On page 39, George said” he’s dumb as hell”. Lennie absolutely loves animals and this affects his decisions as seen throughout the story. Lennie especially loves to pet animals. On page 4, all Lennie can talk about is rabbits. On page 5, Lennie has a dead mouse and pets it and won’t let it go. When George throws the mouse away, Lennie deliberately goes out of his way to get it back on page 9. On page 10, Lennie talks about getting rabbits again. He continues to ask to get rabbits and then asks about the rabbits throughout the story. On page 36, Lennie figures out Slim has puppies and starts jumping off the walls because he was so excited. Lenny loves his puppy so much that he hides it from other people just so no one can take it from him. On page 43, Lennie hides the puppy in his jacket from George so he would not notice. Lennie constantly visits the puppy because he loves animals so much. At the end of the story, just before Lennie was going to get shot by George, he was talking about animals and the rabbits. Lennie always talks about animals and how much he loves them. It is a big part of his personality and it shows throughout the story. Throughout the story, Lennie’s childlike mind, his amazing strength, and his love of animals could be misunderstood. Lennie makes many mistakes without realizing and this gets him into a lot of trouble. Lennie means well but does not realize the power of his own strength. He does not always understand the consequences of his actions and cannot handle reality at times.
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 is unintelligent all throughout the story. “‘Uh-uh. Jus’ a dead mouse, George. I didn’t kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it dead.’” This quote shows that Lennie doesn’t understand that keeping a dead mouse as a pet is not sanitary and not the right thing to do. Another time, George was exclaiming to Slim that he once told Lennie to jump into the Sacramento River and there Lennie went, right into the river. This trait of Lennie’s effects the story because it got him and George kicked out of Weed when he wanted to feel a girl’s dress. It also got him into trouble when they got to their new job. His unintelligence gets him into more trouble as the story goes on making him anything but a sympathetic character.
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.
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...
Curley's wife, an accident that seals his own fate and destroys not only his dreams but George's and Candy's as well. In the beginning Lennie used to pet mice that his Aunt Clara used to give him, he would always end up killing them because he didn't know his own strength. Lennie never killed any pet or person purposely; he pets too roughly and kills them accidentally. An example of his rough tendencies is in the first chapter (page7) when Lennie wants to keep a dead mouse and George wouldn't let him Lennie says" Uh-uh. Jus' a dead mouse, George.
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 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
Lennie’s illness was seen as common and nothing to take concern over, which pertains to the vague yet soft sympathy from George whom “babysits” Lennie. George was an older brother to Lennie in a sense, helping him to get through life without any mishaps. However for George, Lennie’s illness determined their income and job status. In several incidences, Lennie overreacted in certain situations causing them to lose or leave their job spontaneously. At different points in the book, George became frustrated with Lennie: “You can't keep a job and you lose me ever' job I get. Jus' keep me shovin' all over the country all the time. An' that ain't the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out” (Steinbeck 12). This showed the overall frustration yet compassion towards Lennie, however extreme concern. According to Lennie, when he killed the puppy he said: “Why do you got to get killed, you ain’t as little as mice I didn’t bounce you hard” (Steinbeck 85). This really brought out the fact that Lennie’s illness was not to be tempered with, as he really couldn’t ever contemplate the harsh, unintentional things he’s done. When George and Lennie arrive at their new job, tension rises in the book and the author brings out that possible aspect of Lennie unintentionally doing something wrong which in turn would cause them to lose their job--or
His innocence stands out from the grimy coverings of loneliness and hopelessness the other characters wear. The reason Lennie is so innocent is that he has a mental handicap, one that prevents him from understanding complex human emotions such as guilt, or concepts such as death. In addition, Lennie has trouble remembering things, “" I tried and tried [to remember]...but it didn't do not good." Consequently, Lennie has trouble fitting in with society. Ultimately his mental disability is what leads to Lennie's demise at the end of the book. Another trait that is an essential part of Lennie's innocent character is his devotion to his closest friend George. In fact, the only times Lennie is shown to be angry is when George is insulted or threatened. When Crooks, the crippled, black, stable hand, implies bad things about George, this devotion is clearly shown. “Suddenly Lennie's eyes centered and grew quiet, and mad. He walked dangerously toward Crooks. 'Who hurt George?' he demanded"
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:
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.