Similarities Between Lennie In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

If Lennie were living in today’s society, he would be treated more equally. In the 1930s during the time period of the book, Lennie was treated inferior to everyone else. Mentally challenged people dealt with abuse and cruel treatment . Although many were placed in institutions that were meant to help them, they were still treated poorly. When the patients were not in bed they were forced to labor long hours. Luckily Lennie had someone like

In Of Mice And Men society looks down upon people with setbacks, such as mental retardation. Lennie had mental slowness and was always getting in trouble because of it. George and Lennie were in and out of jobs everywhere. They always traveled with their bindles on their backs and had to keep moving because Lennie kept doing things to ruin the

Many people develop mental illness before the age of thirty. Lennie Small a character in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck shows many symptoms of mental illness which lead to his death. Lennie Small's mental state ultimately lead to his death because he was unable to defend himself, he didn't know how to use his strength, and he is unable to learn from his mistakes.

In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck succeeded in making Lennie a sympathetic character. What makes him a sympathetic character is his childlike, kind, and unintelligent. Of Mice and Men is about two men, George and Lennie who are just arriving at their new job after getting kicked out of their last job. They arrive at their job searching for their American Dream. To be able to live on their own piece of land with their own harvest and their own animals. The second man Lennie is a big man who doesn’t understand how strong he is. He’s not the brightest and his kind, childlike features make you want to root for him. When things don’t go his way you feel bad for him. Steinbeck does a great job of making you feel sympathetic for Lennie

In Mice And Men, there are a variety of characters that have many different personalities. Some are mean, kind, and there are some that are just plain jerks. One character in particular that has a distinct personality in Mice And Men, is Lennie. Lennie is misjudged, underestimated, and treated unfairly just because he has a mental disability. Society and many different characters treat him differently in the book.

Lennie small is a large strong, and un intelligent man. He rarely thinks for himself and can’t hold his own. He does not understand Who you can laugh at or when you can laugh which makes him not have any social awareness. Lennie also never learns throughout the course of this story. He never learns to stay away from some people. For All these reasons we are sympathetic for him.

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

The fact that he had a mental disability limited what he would be able to do in the eyes of the people around him. This was only one of the stereotypes that came up surrounding mental disabilities, with many more concerning how fragile or weak they were. The way these ideas about mental disabilities affected Lennie’s identity around certain people cause him to feel like an outsider. This was seen mainly when people treated him as if he were incapable of doing anything regular people could do. For instance this can be seen in the quote, “.. cause he was too dumb to take care of himself,” (Steinbeck 40). The way the quote is used in the book allows readers to really see the way people viewed mental disabilities during the 1930’s. Although there is a negative connotation to having a mental disability, they are not always that severe. Thus, the commentary on mental disability in the book allows for readers to better access and understand the stereotypes that were surrounding the topic during the time.

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

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.

Disabilities can be mental : everything is in your head; and one of the characters that has mental disabilities is Lennie, society treats him in a harsh ways. When Curley comes into the bunkhouse, and sees that only George answers his questions, he screams to Lennie : “Curley stared levelly at him. ‘Well, nex’ time you answer when you’re spoke to.’ He turned toward the door and walked out, and his elbows were still bent out a little.” Lennie can’t answer Curley because of his mental conditions. Curley doesn’t seem to get it so he treats Lennie very poorly by screaming at him. George is talking about Lennie to Slim : “One day a bunch of guys was standin’ around up on the Sacramento River. I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says, ‘Jump in.’ An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him.” This quotation shows that people take advantage of Lennie’s disabilities just to have fun and watch him suffer. It’s not Lennie’s fault if he jumped in the river and people know that, but they still choose to treat him carelessly, and wrongly. In conclusion, we know that Lennie suffers from mental

Although John Steinbeck’s novelette Of Mice and Men included a vast away of interesting characters, Lennie was one that sparked my interest the most. Small’s personality is similar to that of an innocent child’s; he is also often depicted like an animal, as he is as strong as a bull (as Milton describes him), but acts like a dog. Small is also mentally handicapped, feels security when it comes to touching soft items, and does not understand many abstract ideas. We can look at all of these traits through his devoted dependency towards George. Though he acts this way, he does not actually comprehend this idea of loyalty. As a result, he often gets into trouble without the intention of doing so, and once he does, only defines his

His disability prevents Lennie from retaining the information that he receives. Due to this condition Lennie is not perceived as others by smart, but as stupid. Lennie’s inability to remember bits of information makes him feel embarrassed and stereotyped as

Lennie’s death also implied that mentally stable individuals during that era were not fit to survive. In “Intellectual Disability in Carlisle Floyd 's Of Mice and Men,” Stephanie Jensen-Moulton writes “The character Lennie Small generally reflects the predominant thought about intellectually disabled individuals in the United States. From the beginning of the novel, the author builds a solid case against Lennie, implying not only that he would not be able to survive were he to live on his own without George.” Jensen-Moulton’s analysis accurately conveys how mentally disabled people were viewed as unfit who could not live life without someone caring for them. This

In the novels of Of Mice and Men and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Lennie and Christopher both suffer from mental disabilities that affect their ability to function independently and interact with others, and both also have problems with impulse control, causing them to be abusive. Lennie is mentally challenged, having memory problems and a childlike mind, and his obsession with touching soft things combined with his physical strength leads him into conflicts, especially with women. Similarly, Christopher, who is autistic, physically lashes out at others when he becomes distressed or overwhelmed. Despite their disabilities, both characters have impressive strengths: Lennie’s brawn allows him to be the best worker in