How Does Steinbeck Describe Lennie's Disability

George and Lennie have a very interesting relationship. George acts as a parent to Lennie all of the time. George exhibits many qualities as a parent such as protecting Lennie, instructing him, and loving him. Lennie is unable to make basic decisions in everyday life.

For example in chapter 5 it says, “Lennie was in panic. His face was contorted. She screamed then, and Lennie’s other hand closed over her mouth and nose. “Please don’t,” he begged… George’ll be mad” (91). Lennie ends up killing Curley’s wife because he wanted to feel her soft hair and she got uncomfortable which made her scream, but since George would get ma if he found, Lennie was only trying to keep her quiet.

When Curley said he is going to shoot the guts out of Lennie, George was shocked and could only think of one solution. With the way that Curley will kill Lennie, Lennie will be scared, hurt, and wondering about what will happen. Luckily, George was there to talk to him and make him excited and joyful, before Lennie was shot in the

He could not manage to keep himself and George out of trouble therefor George had no other choice but to shoot Lennie. When Lennie had killed Curley’s wife he didn’t mean to kill her “He shook her then, and he was angry with her. Don’t you go yelling’ he said the shook her body and flopped like a fish and the she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck”(Steinbeck 91). This shows the reader that Lennie was just trying to silence Curley’s wife and had no intent of killing her and is a danger to

Lennie Small is a character that readers are drawn to right from the beginning of the book. His innocence stands out from the grimey coverings of loneliness and hopelessness that the other characters wear. The reason Lennie is so innocent is because 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" When it comes to George, Lennie would deviate from the normal passive motives of his persona. More support can be found when George is the only one who can convince Lennie to “get him[Curly]” when Curly attacks him, as well as being the only one to stop him. Perhaps the most prominent support for Lennie's childlike innocence is in his utter belief of George and his dream. No matter how

Although Lennie has the mental capacity of a child, he is innocent to doing anything wrong to George. George just seen him as a potential threat.

Not being able to act like an adult causes Lennie to be treated differently and incapable of being on his own. Lennie’s mental challenges create a hard life for Lennie to succeed in. Before even growing up Lennie was stuck with a setback, and now to reach his is almost impossible without help. George’s circumstances create a difficult way to achieve what he dreams

This is why Lennie isn’t violent. Whenever Lennie does something bad, he suddenly thinks back to George, not being violent, or the fact that he just hurt someone. This shows that he can’t help the things he does, he always needs someone looking after him. One example of this is on page 91, when Curley’s wife starts screaming: “Please don’t do that. George’ll be mad.”

His disability makes him sort of act like a child. His disability also gives him innocence At the beginning of the story, Lennie pets a mouse so hard that he ends up killing it. Lennie didn't even realize that he killed it when he did. “Uh-uh. Jus’ a dead mouse, George. I didn’ kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it dead.” (Steinbeck, 5). Lennie in this book Of Mice and Men, he argues like he is a little child. He also does things that makes him act like a child. He is obsessed with fury animals. Some examples are of the fury animal he likes are bunnies and mice. “I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along.” Said lennie. (Steinbeck,

First off, Lennie is discriminated for his actions, such as his love of handling soft objects. Lennie claims that he “Jus’ wanted to feel that girl's dress -- Jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse…” then George

Drifting away from the general opinion that physical disabilities were deemed unimportant in the 1930’s, the author of Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck, presents two characters: Lennie and Crooks, who can be portrayed as the social class of physically impaired people. Steinbeck presents society’s attitudes towards physical disability through these characters and shows how they are marginalized and excluded from everyday life. Throughout the story, Lennie, who has a developmental disability, shows how hard it can be for people with physical disabilities to understand social rules and fit in. For example, when he accidentally kills Curley's wife, he's described as being "like a child". This shows how Lennie's disability makes it hard for him to

<br>A reader can understand very vividly from his actions and attitudes that George is sensible and able to think quickly in a situation. He seems to have a very good understanding of the nature of others, especially of their attitudes towards Lennie, for example, that if the boss hears Lennie talk and realises his handicapped, then it is unlikely they will get work. He also knows, to make Lennie repeat things two or three times over to himself, to help him remember, for example when he slowly repeats, "Hide in the brush till I come for you, can you remember that?" to Lennie. He also knows that Lennie is likely to do things and attempt to hide them, such as when Lennie appears from his walk in the woods, and is immediately suspected of smuggling a dead

Because he can’t learn or control himself or his actions like when he grabbed on the lady’s dress and because George isn’t able to constantly watch over him, he ends up having to die at the end of the story on page 105. During the time period where the story takes place, there were no systems in place to keep Lennie safe and society wasn’t willing to change to help him. Modern systems that could help him is being able to hire someone to watch over care for Lennie when George is unable to. Because George has to watch over him constantly, George constantly loses jobs, loses money, and gets thrown off of ranches because of what Lennie does. He got him and George thrown out of weed as said on page 41 because they didn’t understand that he had a mental disability and assumed that he was a rapist, he wondered into Crooks’ room because he saw light and no one was around on page 67 and Crooks repeatedly called him crazy , he killed a puppy on page 85 because he could not control his own strength, killed curley's wife on page 91 because she tried to talk to him and understand him, and started to hallucinate on page 100 because George wasn’t with him and he was scared.

In addition, Lennie's childlike manner is portrayed in his dependency on George. He listens to everything George tells him and depends on him for necessities such as food and water. In fact, it seems that without George Lennie would be unable to survive.

Lennie is mentally disabled and so always ‘does bad things’, because of this, he constantly depends on George to protect him and get him out of trouble. For example, in Weed, Lennie constantly ‘wants to touch