Mental Illness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Throughout Of Mice and Men, Lennie’s interest in petting things is shown. However, the outcome of Lennie’s interest is often tragic. His disabilities cause him to be too rough when petting things accicentally. He can not control his strength, and that poses a huge threat. Lennie even kills mice and the puppy because of it. Curley’s wife notices this when she witnesses Lennie with the dead puppy in the stables. When they were talking, Lennie expresses to Curley’s wife that he “likes to pet nice things” (Steinbeck 90), and tells her how his hobby in petting things results for the puppy. Unfortunately, Curley’s wife still allows the big guy to pet her hair. As a result, Curley’s wife is the only one to blame for her death. Some might say that Curley’s wife should not be held responsible for her own death because she is lonely and just wants someone to talk to. However, loneliness is no exception for her allowing this to happen after receiving the obvious warnings she is given. Therefore, Curley’s wife should have carefully considered letting someone, who was so easily capable of an enormous amount of hurt, touch her

Throughout the novel, Lennie is put to the test against obstacles he has to overcome; he always turns to George for the right answer. Lennie trusts George to make the right decision for him. When Curley was fighting Lennie, Lennie was covering his face with his hand until George screams, “Get ‘im, Lennie” and instantly Lennie puts his hand on Curley and breaks the bones in his hand (Steinbeck 63). Lennie can’t think for himself and never truly means to be mean. Lennie doesn’t know how to control his own body, “He was so little… I was jus’ playin’ with him…an’ he made like he’s gonna bite me…an’ I made like I was gonna smack him… an’…an’ I done it. An’ then he was dead” (Steinbeck 87). In other words, it foreshadows that he is too strong for his own mind and that something potentially worse could happen. Sadly, George made the right decision for Lennie by killing him to prevent future suffering and

He does this to make Lennie realise how lucky he is to have some on that he could rely on. But as Lennie is so vulnerable he gets angry and scares off Crooks. Lennie is a person who likes to touch soft things and is vulnerable to Curley’s wife as well as she knows she can talk to someone who won’t take advantage of him. Lennie being dumb is a harsh reality but as an innocent person causes bad things to happen.

Toxic masculinity. It is a hidden concept that not many men know of yet many men have internalized. It is a socially-constructed attitude that describes the male gender as violent, unemotional, dominant, and sexually aggressive. Culturally accepted ideas of manliness lead men to believe that to “be a man” one must display these horrible attributes. John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men follows the dynamic duo that is George Milton and Lennie Small as they face the Great Depression and a new job. In his novel, Steinbeck seems to represent the idea of toxic masculinity through not only the ranch workers but George and Lennie themselves. Steinbeck shows that male stereotypes and false ideas of manhood not only exist in present-day but were also present during the 1930’s. Through Steinbeck’s depiction of certain men as aggressive and strong, he proves that toxic masculinity, gender roles, and the patriarchy can affect men negatively much more than they affect women.

He is feeling left out and vulnerable because his wife is avoiding him, so he lashes out at Lennie to release his pain, “Curley stepped over to Lennie like a terrier. ‘What the hell you laughin’ at?’ Lennie looked blankly at him. ‘Huh?’ Then Curley’s rage exploded.

In fact, Curley says to Lennie “Come on, ya big bastard. Get up on your feet. No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me. I’ll show ya who’s yella.” Because he is trying to provoke him.

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.

“I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail”(Steinbeck 7). If a person has a mental or physical challenge, it will have a major effect on how that person is capable of living the rest of their life. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck illustrates how the mental and physical challenges and state of mind of the characters makes them incapable of achieving their American Dreams. Individuals with mental challenges in the 1930’s and now a days, were and still may be considered to be worthless and not good for much. Having a physical challenge, like a missing hand, will affect the type of work someone can do, and could limit someone job opportunities. Usually when a person is told something as a child, they will believe

Most people probably know someone with a mental disability. Just because someone has a disability does not mean we have to ignore, or neglect them. People with a mental disability are not to be shunned. The statement by J.F. Clarke proves true when using psychological lens to analyze conflict and characterization in the novella Of Mice and Men, by John Stienbeck by Stienbeck's use of conflict throughout the novella.

The reader sees fleeting glances of his insecurities, such as when he runs into the bunkhouse, demanding, “Any you guys seen my wife?”, for as much as Curley may brag about it, his wife is hardly ever by his side (Steinbeck 53). Curley lacks self-confidence, and must bully the other workers to raise his own self-esteem. Picking fights with other men, which is the one thing that saves Curley from his internal lack of confidence, also causes his demise: “Lennie grabs his entire fist in mid-swing, stopping him, and then proceeds to crush Curley's hand” (Bloom). His hand, which he used to beat others, was his only savior, and now Lennie has crushed it, which disables Curley even more and pushes him further away from the tall, confident, masculine fighter he wishes to be. His loneliness stems from insecurity, and his disabilities cause that insecurity.

In life human nature can be known to be thought of as a high quality and/or low quality. Naturally, human nature is there without thought about what it actually is. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the author sprinkles clues and evidence of how human nature was and still is today. The themes that Steinbeck used throughout the novel were, for example friendship, loneliness, and weak vs. strong.

Lennie’s rash character does not help the situation because he provokes Curley’s wife and allows her to get close to him even though it is going to be bad for the both of them. Comparing Lennie to a machine highlights his rash character also, because he is tough and can break people’s arms and hands without even having to apply that much pressure. That also creates a conflict because he knows that he is too strong to be handling anything. Curley’s wife knows that she should not be flirting with Lennie, but he is an easy target. Lennie was not thinking rationally and gets easily persuaded by her flirtatious aims. This is really the beginning of the conflict between Lennie and Curley’s wife because she has been flirting with him, and that will later bring out the rash character of Lennie and cause a dire ending for the both of them. Getting scared from all of Curley’s wife's yelling, Lennie acts out, “...he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck” (91). Lennie was again being rash and he panicked and broke Curley’s wife's

Lennie is a gentle person, but he doesn't know how to react the right way in tough decisions. Curley got into a fight with Lennie. Which was a big mistake. “The next minute Curley was flopping like a fish on a line, and his closed fist was lost in Lennie’s big hand.” (Steinback 63). Curley’s hand was crushed and broken. Then there is the incident that happened in a town called Weed. “Well, he seen

Lennie and Curley have issues that were not solved through violence“Curley was flopping like a fish on a line, and his closed first was lost in Lennie's big hand”( 69 ). This is when Lennie defended himself from

It’s not his fault, he doesn’t know any better, but it didn’t matter. No one understood his mental issues, and even if they had they most likely wouldn’t have cared. Curley’s wife takes a liking to Lennie, and they talk in the barn. She asks him if he would like to touch her hair after learning that he likes soft things. Of course Lennie quickly starts to touch her hair.