Mental Illness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Lennie never does anything without the consent from George. He knows he has to listen to George, If he doesn't he knows he will end up in trouble like he did while picking weeds. In all the trouble that Lennie gets in, he doesn't do it on purpose. Lennie has a good heart and never means to hurt anyone. His mental disability causes all his action.

The first reason why George is justified in killing Lennie is because Lennie is worthless like Candy’s dog. Candy’s dog is causing trouble for the men, and suffering while it's still alive “Ain’t nothing left for him. Can’t eat, can’t see, can’t even walk without hurtin’( Steinbeck 47). Like Lennie, the dog is physically impaired. The dog can hardly walk and Lennie has some trouble moving around. Lennie is worthless, because he does

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

“Look, George. Look what I done” (Steinbeck, Pg. 3). Here Steinbeck gives us the idea that Lennie looks up to George in everything he does like a child does to his parents. Lennie can’t take of himself since he is mentally handicapped so we get an idea that even though they are just friends, George is like a father figure to Lennie. Also by the word choice in the dialogue we can see that Lennie communicates in a particular way like if he just learn to speak, therefore he could be compared as a child. “I wasn’t doin’ nothing bad with it, George. Jus’ strokin’ it.” Steinbeck uses dialogue to give us an idea of George’s strong personality. “Don’t let him pull you in-but- if the son of a bitch” This quote gives us the idea that George’s personality is very strong and defensive by the explicit language which shows us anger. Also it gives us a idea that even though he is strong and aggressive he cares about what happens to Lennie. This can relate to the link that he treats him like he is his

George takes care of Lennie many ways. George has taken care of Lennie for a long time. George took him under his wing even though he didn’t need to. George genuinely cares for Lennie. He feeds him, makes sure he is safe, also he gives him hope. George is constantly watching Lennie. George is a good friend to Lennie; however, George gets annoyed with Lennie very easily. He does this to make sure he doesn’t get into trouble or lost. He never leaves him by himself. This is shown when Lennie offers to leave, but George tells him “I want you to stay with me Lennie”(Steinbeck 104). George really cares for Lennie.

Lenny is on track to an early death as a result of his lifestyle decisions. If he continues his habits on a regular basis, he will most likely develop preventable diseases. These are some of unhealthy things which affect his chances: smoking, obesity, stress, environment, having high blood pressure, and his diet (containing high-salt). There are major health problem that all are linked to these choices; cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer are several key ones. Without changing, Lenny will probably live a shorter life—as a result of his own decisions and way of life.

The long, hard war of human equality in society, has been a war since the beginning of civilization. The Great Depression, a tragic time in America’s history, reflects American determination, but also social inequality. In the fiction novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses symbolism and characterization to address ableism and sexism in society. Steinbeck addresses these flaws in society in an attempt to ultimately bring awareness these riffs before society falls.

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

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.

    George took Lennie in after Lennie’s aunt died. George knew his aunt pretty well. Lennie had nowhere to go afterwards, so George let Lennie come along with him. George wasn’t always nice to Lennie in the beginning. George would tease him and trick him. Lennie didn’t know any better than to listen to George, even if it was a taunt. After an incident happened to Lennie, George stopped tormenting him. He felt bad for Lennie and how he treated him. From this moment on, George actually took into consideration of Lennie’s mindset. In the book, Steinbeck writes,

The problem with Lennie was that he was mentally disabled, back in the 1930's people did not understand things like that, and had no clue about disabled people. Lennie was sweet and loved thing that were soft. Lennie would put himself in very dangerous situations and with disability he lacked the capacity to control himself physically. Lennie did not understand how strong he was and they damage he would do until after the fact. He also shares the dream of having the small farm and tending to his small rabbit hutch. Since Lennie is mentally disabled he depends on George for almost everything. Lennie is like a small child that has to a have a parent nearby always or he will get into

Lennie’s mental disability is one of his most defining traits of how he tends to forget everything. The origin of his mental disability is unclear but his mind seems to be like a two year old and forget everything. George seems to stick around Lennie because he cares for him but most importantly for his disability. In the first chapter when Lennie and George are settling down by the

One of the many reasons why this novella is so highly acclaimed is because of its complex characters. Steinbeck is able to convey a character’s personality and nature through their behavior. Although he never spells it out, readers are able to comprehend that Lennie has some sort of mental disability. Steinbeck first introduces Lennie being reprimanded by George like a parent would reprimand a child. Other obvious hints of “unusual” behavior are Lennie’s choppy speech, his obsession with petting (mostly dead) mice, and his forgetfulness. It seems like no one understands Lennie and what might’ve happened for him to be this way, so George jokes about it. He says, “He got kicked in the head by a horse when he was a kid. He’s awright. Just ain’t bright.” (22 Steinbeck) The readers are almost tricked to believe that it’s okay for George and everyone else to make fun of Lennie’s mental disability because if he’s too dumb to understand, how can it hurt him… right? Of course not! Steinbeck pulls the rug from under everyone by having George reveal that he almost killed Lennie by messing with his inability to understand when someone is taking advantage of him. In a heart-to-heart with Slim, George reveals, “I used to have a hell of a lot of fun with ‘im. Used to play jokes

Just about anyone can experience mental health problems, this is not something people should be ashamed or embarrassed about and talking about it is so much more beneficial than hiding it. Many people tend to try and hide their mental illness from other people. People tend to do this because having a mental illness can affect someone's job, social life, health, and their image. John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men demonstrates the hardships that come along with having a mental illness and demonstrates the difficulties of maintaining a normal life when society isn’t willing to give you any opportunities.

People with mental disabilities are often unaware of how to handle difficult situations causing them to commit unintentional actions, leading other people to enforce a capital punishment among them. In John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, this theme is represented throughout the life of Lennie. The story depicts the character Lennie with some mental disabilities that affected his journey in many ways, which led to many incidents and unfortunately his death as well. While it is understandable that people may want to punish the disabled for their crimes, capital punishments of those who are mentally disabled, including Lennie, should not be enforced and therefore be spared.