In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, two men named Lennie and George work as laborers on a ranch in Salinas Valley, California. They have the American Dream of owning a piece of land one day, and work very hard to try to achieve it. Through traits and dialogue, Steinbeck successfully portrays Lennie as a sympathetic character. He shows Lennie’s reliance on George, gives Lennie childlike behavior, and reveals Lennie’s lack of intelligence. Lennie is reliant on George because George acts as the parental figure in his life and tells him what and what not to do. In Of Mice and Men, on pg. 64, the narrator says, “Suddenly Lennie let go his hold. He crouched cowering against the wall.” Then, Lennie says, “‘You tol’ me to, George,’ he said …show more content…
In Of Mice and Men, on pg. 88, Lennie says, "’Maybe if I took this pup out and throwed him away George wouldn't never know. An' then I could tend the rabbits without no trouble.’" Then, Curley's wife responds, "Don't you think of nothing but rabbits?’" This exchange in the story shows that Lennie doesn’t act like an adult and thinks of ideas that only children would; it shows Lennie is scared that George will not let him tend the rabbits because he killed his pup; and it reveals that Lennie can’t be taken seriously by other characters in the book. Lennie’s childlike behavior makes the reader feel sympathetic towards him because Lennie doesn’t know how to act mature like an adult. Towards the end of the book, Lennie’s childlike behavior will impact his life forever. Additionally, Steinbeck uses Lennie’s childlike behavior to show Lennie’s lack of intelligence. At first, Lennie’s naivety is subtle, but it changes throughout the course of the book, and he eventually gets into big trouble because of his lack of intelligence. Lennie is forgetful, like a child, and has little social etiquette. In Of Mice and Men on pg. 4, Lennie asks George, “‘Where we goin’, George?’” And George responds, “‘So you forgot that awready, did you? I gotta tell you again, do I? Jesus Christ, you’re a crazy bastard!’” Through this dialogue, Steinbeck shows that Lennie is so unintelligent that he must rely on George to remind him about everything. Additionally, on pg. 63, when
Even though George sometimes says how much better his life would be without Lennie, he will always protect Lennie. George is devoted to watching out for Lennie. He is always telling Lennie not to talk because that will probably lead to trouble. If Lennie gets in trouble that will block the both of them from living their dream. So George is inspired to keep Lennie out of trouble.
Lennie Small has a very symbolic importance in the novel Of Mice and Men. In the novel George Milton and Lennie Small both migrant workers pursue their dream of someday owning their own ranch by travelling around working as ranch hands to earn a living. The dream they share is to be able to "live off the fat of the land,". Lennie Small is a very complex character, although he may not appear to be at first glance. Lennie is the most interesting character in the novel because he differs from the other is many ways. Lennie Small ironically is a man of large stature and is very strong. He is child-like in his emotions and has a diminished mental capacity. Lennie's feelings are much like that of a normal person when you take into
Lennie shows his naiveness in many different ways, such as him being forgetful and having a thing for soft objects. “Lennie look startled and then in embarrassment hid his face against his knees. ‘I forgot again.’”(6) By Lennie saying, “I forgot again” in the quote helps the reader understand that it is not the first time Lennie has forgot something. Since Lennie is forgetful, society views him differently. “Uh-uh. Jus’ a dead mouse, George. I didn’t kill it. Honest! I found it dead.”(5) “Aw, let me have it George.”(5) Society normally wants nothing to do with mice, but these two quotes show us that Lennie is not like everybody else. These two quotes also lead one to make the assumption that Lennie lacks in wisdom and
“Man is the unnatural animal, the rebel child of nature”, H. G. Wells. Throughout Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, the majority of the characters are given bestial qualities, such as cold-heartedness and a very uncompassionate mentality. Unlike the others, Lennie and George seem to be compassionate and caring towards one another. The most prominent difference is how Lennie’s disability gives him a childlikeness and an ability to see the world without judgement and fear. More suitably, Lennie seems to have a very strong connection with nature, he is consistently around animals whether they are dead or alive. Because Lennie has a learning disability, he would normally be mistreated and not be able to be hired to work in this time period but, he
The novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck is set in America in the 1930’s and it describes the lives of migrant farmers as they go from farm to farm looking for jobs. It also shows the loneliness of the characters and the hard work that they put in. The main characters of the book are Lennie, a man-child, and George, a small man but very powerful character that takes care of Lennie in their journey. Also when they get to the farm they meet the bosses wife who is very lonely and looks for company in the workers. Steinbeck uses characterization to bring his characters to life using various techniques.
Everyone has had a caretaker or guardian to protect and care for them at some period in time. Developing into an adult is often times when a person becomes able to live independently. However, this is not the case for Lennie Small from the story, “Of Mice and Men” as a result of his disability. Being dependant on other people, Lennie needs a caretaker because of the lack of family to protect him. Someone without family relation, George, rises to the position as his caretaker in the harsh, unforgiving circumstances they have at the moment. Dreaming of a better future, George has to carry Lennie from job to job in order to eventually collect enough money to finally claim their land as their own. George has good, honest intentions for Lennie and only strives to give him the best conditions even if it meant he had to pull the trigger against him.
He can rarely think for himself and make his own decision. “I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you were by yourself” (Steinbeck, p. 14). George does not trust lennie to live by himself. He thinks Lennie would not be able to hold his own and get a job. George is sympathetic towards lennie so he lets lennie stay with him. Lennie Would make a mistake like touching a girl for too long and hurting her which would cause everyone to run after him and he could not do that without George. This makes us sympathetic toward george because he makes bad decisions and gets himself into a lot of
Lennie Smalls is often misunderstood from his mental handicap to how he presents himself as a person. In spite of being mentally handicap, Lennie is faced with being looked to as an animal. Although,Of Mice and Men is a story about an unlikely pair of friends who have a plan to own their own acre of land and a shack to call their own. George is the guidance of Lennie , therefore Lennie needs some extra patience and guidance when he has disobeyed George’s orders. “‘Look, Lennie, if you get into any kind of trouble, you remember what I told you to do?’...’If i get in any trouble, you ain’t gonna let
Lennie is the most sympathetic character in Of Mice and Men because he’s not very bright when it comes to things and happens to forget a lot. As George and Lennie are walking to go to a new ranch George asked Lennie
The story “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is one of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature. “Of Mice and Men” is about two characters George and Lennie. George is very smart but short. Lennie on the other hand is the complete opposite. He is big and has a mind of a child. In “Of Mice and Men” George and Lennie have a dream to own a piece of land somewhere in California. In this story Lennie is being made sympathetic by Steinbeck so then the story is more relatable. Steinbeck is doing this by showing Lennie to have some mental problems and also to make him act like a child in a manly ranch in California.
In the story Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the protagonist of the story Lennie, as a sympathetic character. In the book, Lennie, a big strong guy and his friend George are on a journey away from their home town Weed, to a job on a ranch. Lennie is not the sharpest knife in the drawer and makes many mistakes. George and Lennie already had to leave their town from a mistake that Lennie made, holding on to a girls soft dress because he liked the feel of it. On the ranch, the boys are hoping to make just enough money to buy their own piece of land and live off of it. But after Lennie accidentally murdered his bosses wife from touching her hair because it was soft, he ran away. He didn’t know how to handle his strength abilities. Everyone on the ranch wanted to kill him but George didn’t so George killed him to protect Lennie. Since Lennie is clueless, forgetful, and has remorse for his actions, he has trouble getting his way through life and makes many mistakes on accident. Not understanding a lot of things makes Lennie seem like an innocent and dumb-witted character.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about two men, George and Lennie who travel from ranch to ranch hoping to make enough money to buy their own land. Buying the land is what George and Lennie talk about constantly, this is in fact their American Dream. They have recently left a town called Weed because of an incident that happened there and are now heading to Soledad to work on another ranch. John Steinbeck was successful in making Lennie a sympathetic character because he portrays Lennie as a big strong muscular man that has basically no brain, so he doesn’t really know his own strength so when he hurts someone or does something bad you can’t really blame him.
One way Steinbeck shows Lennie’s childlike innocence is through Lennie not knowing right from wrong. In the beginning of the story Lennie and George are walking by a river where there are many small animals like mice and rabbits in the brush. George tells Lennie “you ain’t petting no mice while you with me”(Steinbeck 6) because Lennie was hiding a dead mouse in his pocket and petting the mice’s fur. Lennie does not have the capability to know why carrying a dead mouse around is wrong. A child does not know the difference between right and wrong until they corrected on their bad behavior like the way George had
The greater part of the novel's appeal, George and Lennie's relationship, although far from what one could call a reciprocal friendship, intrigues the reader in the same way many comic duos intrigue. It is easy to identify with the "smart guy" who helplessly tries to cope with and control his irrational, dumb and, yet, spontaneous, child-like partner as they lurch from one self-inflicted crisis to another. Steinbeck uses that classic comic routine so that the reader warmly identifies and recognizes the relationship. Steinbeck's narrator establishes and characterizes George's lording of power and control over Lennie early in the first chapter:
In the novella Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, the relationship between Lennie Small and George Milton is complex. Lennie and George are two companions who look for work and brave the hardships of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression together. Although Lennie and George are both grown men, their relationship resembles more of a child and a single parent, or a boy and his dog. Lennie is portrayed as animalistic and childish through his behavior and Steinbeck’s comparisons. This reveals the crucial power dynamic in George and Lennie’s relationship.