The Character Of Lennie's Innocence In 'Of Mice And Men'

Lennie is a main character in the novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck. Lennie is described a huge man, with a shapeless face; large, pale eyes; wide, sloping shoulders; who walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. Lennie is described as “strong as a bull”. He is a massive man and is “hell of a good worker,” but he is mentally challenged and not very intellectual. Like George said, “I ain’t saying he’s bright. He ain’t.” Since Lennie is mentally challenged, he has the mind of a child so he acts and talks like a child, and this causes him to also be very impulsive. He likes soft things like rabbits, puppies, and when there is nothing else as a last resort Lennie uses mice. Lennie is a character

Steinbeck presents Lennie to be responsible and irresponsible when he is not with George. Steinbeck shows how he is responsible when he sticks up for George, “He ain’t never been hurt, ‘cause he’s careful.” This quote also suggests Lennie realising himself how is irresponsible for his actions and how he needs George to guide him. This is because Lennie gets quite anxious and angry at the thought of not having George, “He stood up and walked dangerously towards Crooks.” Steinbeck presents Lennie to be irresponsible for his actions when he lets their secret of their dream, slip, “George says we gonna have alfalfa for the rabbits.” This shows

George is out playing horseshoes with the men, while Lennie however, was in the barn with the pups, then Curley’s wife walked in. For the duration of the novel, Curley’s wife, was known as a tart, and as a troublemaker, for this reason, George told Lennie to stay away from her. Lennie begins to touch her soft hair, after she had said it was ok, but he was petting it much to hard, angering her. She repeatedly told him to stop, she tried moving away, but Lennie was in a panic and grabbed on to her hair. She began to struggle and scream and Lennie tried to make her calm

His love of soft things instantly overwhelms the rest of his thoughts. His mental disability causes him to forget everything George taught him: about not going near her, about how she is trouble. Even though he didn’t want any trouble, her hair reminds him of the rabbits. As soon as Curley’s wife starts to get uncomfortable and asks him to stop, Lennie can’t. Curley’s wife is suddenly in horror, so she yells out for help. Upon hearing this, Lennie instantaneously cups his massive hands around her mouth and nose, knowing what consequences will follow if he gets caught in trouble again. Lennie’s childish actions causes Curley’s wife to start suffocate until he eventually breaks her neck. It takes a few moments for Lennie to react to what he has done an then he remembers whar George told him to do if he got in to trouble, “Lennie if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush” . This is the only thought he can think of at this point, so he sets out for the river.

But Lennie, perfecting his craft one incident at a time, messes everything up. Lennie’s biggest fear was not being able to tend the rabbits when they get their own land, and he loved those rabbits. Lennie grieving over killing his puppy starts conversing with Curley’s wife, a decision he should have never made. Lennie got caught in an unbelievable predicament with Curley’s wife, he was holding her mouth shut while pulling her hair, getting angry at her tell her to shut up, because he does not want to get in trouble. Because, if he did he would not be able to tend the rabbits. As she continued to scream, louder and louder as seconds went by, Lennie with his harmless intentions did not know what to do, so he shook her to get her to shut up but unintentionally broke her neck (Steinbeck, 91). Lennie knowing what to do if he ever did something bad, escapes to the hideout that only him and George know about. Eventually, everybody finds out about Curley’s wife when Candy found her dead body in the barn. At this moment, George knew he had two decisions that would change his life forever. He would either side with his new friends and find Lennie, or escape with Lennie and find another place to work. George makes the right decision and sides with his friends, but he knew they wanted Lennie dead, so he decided to do it himself. George met up with Lennie at their hideout and told him to look the other way and envision everything good about the farm, not wanting to harm Lennie he made sure he was as happy as he could be at that very moment. As George started to describe the farm to him, he put the gun to the back of his neck and pulled the

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.

Even George, who acted as Lennie’s protector in the novel, lost his temper and lashed out at Lennie in certain situations. "Blubberin’ like a baby! Jesus Christ! A big guy like you!" Lennie’s lip quivered and tears started in his eyes” (9). In this situation, George failed to realize that Lennie’s mental state was not quite stable, and that the best way to deal with him is to be kind and gentle. However, other characters treated Lennie far worse than George did. Curley was persistently trying to pick a fight with Lennie, not realizing that Lennie did not understand the concept of fighting, and even when provoked would fail to fight back. When Lennie kills Curley’s wife, Curley fails to realize that Lennie committed this horrific crime unintentionally, and instead is blinded with rage. “I’ll kill the big son-of-a-bitch myself. I’ll shoot ‘im in the guts” (96). Curley is too bent on revenge to discern that Lennie’s murderous act may have been unintentional, and is therefore not taking Lennie’s mental instability into

In John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men we are introduced to two main characters, Lennie and George. In the book, George acts like the leader of the two men. In that sense, Lennie is viewed more so as the incapable one in the group. Lennie also can’t seem to remember anything that’s important to George and their life together which makes Lennie a character that readers feel sympathy towards. Lennie also looks up to George which makes him the more vulnerable character because he feels that he need permission from George if he wants to do something. Since Lennie is described as such and innocent character, John Steinbeck made the reader feel sympathetic to Lennie.

What if a man walked outside and walked to a friends house. Now once he got to this house, he learned that this friend accidentally harmed someone because he doesn’t have mental control over his strength. So this man kills his friend. This is what happens at the end of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.

“Life is full of tough decisions, and nothing makes them easy.” The quote by Martha Beck is true to the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck because during the course of the story the main character George is faced with a tough decision of either killing his friend or having him suffer. Killing Lennie in that moment was the best thing that George could have done. In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck the main character George was justified in killing Lennie.

Everybody has good and bad characteristics right? Lennie from the novel “of mice and Men” by John Steinbeck has many positive traits and negative traits. Lennie is always getting George frustrated, but Lennie cares about George as George cares for him. One positive trait that Lennie has is that he is very caring. “Suddenly Lennie’s eyes centered and grew quiet, and mad.

A deed must be punished and death can be a better alternative rather than living a life in the shadows. A prime example of having to decide between death and a life in crime is Lennie in the novel “Of Mice and Men”. Lennie is unaware of his size and tends to do things a large person won’t normally do. Lennie is extremely clumsy and has killed numerous people and things by accident on account of his size. Unlike Lennie, George is a little man with an idea of how to keep out of trouble. The fact that George can take care of himself leads to a strong relationship. George watches over Lennie and Lennie protects George physically. This reliance ultimately leads to them having a strong and close relationship. Although George shot Lennie, it was justified

Who is Truly Innocent and Guilty? Lennie Small has been portrayed as an innocent young man who simply cannot help himself when certain situations arise when George Milton isn’t there to stop him or set him straight. His anger has gotten the best of him more than once, which has led me to thinking, “Is Lennie really as innocent as he seems to be?” the answer to which leads me onto a theme of the story, which is “nothing is always as it seems”. You’d think that Lennie wouldn’t be as smart as any of the other characters because of how he has been portrayed, but there is evidence of Lennie “holding onto” things he’s been told, “Jesus Christ, Lennie!

"'No- look! I was jus' foolin', Lennie. 'Cause I want you to stay with me.'"

John Steinbeck’s story, Of Mice and Men, is a book about two friends, George and Lennie, who travel around the country working together. George is a small man who is in charge of taking care of Lennie, his big huge friend who is mentally disabled. This in itself helps to provoke sympathy from people reading the book due to his increased responsibilities, however there are more things that occur to make us sympathize with George. When things happen to Lennie, like when Lennie gets into a fight and depends on George for instruction on how to handle things, is another important example of things that happen in the book, making George’s hardships apparent, which make people have an increasing amount of sympathy towards him. Also, at the end of the book, George is pushed to shoot Lennie because of the bad things he accidentally did, which had extremely bad criminal consequences.