Violence In Of Mice And Men Essay

I found Lennie playin’ with his pup in the last stall in the barn. It was dead when I got there. He probably crushed it just like he did with Curley’s hand. They must think I’m stupid or somethin’-obviously it was Lennie who crushed ‘is hand. Lennie’s too strong for his own good. For some reason, George doesn’t want me to talk to Lennie. Well, I don’t think I’m any harm

I didn’t bounce you so hard” (Steinbeck 85 of Mice and Men) He doesn’t back down when candy’s wife tells him to stop petting her hair because he thinks feeling it is more important than her fear. He threatens and nearly beats crooks when he proposes a hypothetical to try and get Lennie to understand him because he can’t rationalize his fear or consider why crooks would try and make him think about it. “Suddenly Lennie’s eyes centered and grew quiet, and mad. He stood up and walked dangerously toward Crooks.

Lennie loves to pet soft objects, and he’s obsessed with mice and rabbits because he loves how nice their fur feels. Every time he pets things he likes, he always gets himself into trouble. In the very beginning of the book, George and Lennie have to run away from a town. They need to escape because a woman accuses Lennie of raping her but all he did was pet her soft dress. When the women started screaming Lennie got afraid and held on. Lennie doesn't understand right from wrong when it comes to situations like this.. “Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress-jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse.”(Doc B) This dialogue from Lennie shows how he can’t control himself. Later in the book Lennie gets a puppy that he can pet without harming it. Lennie ends up petting it too hard and kills the puppy. “I di’n’t know you’d get killed so easy.” (Doc B) This quote shows how Lennie didn’t mean to harm the puppy. When Curley's wife talks with Lennie and tells him he can pet her hair, things don’t turn out well. While lennie pets Curley's wife's hair, she yells many times “Let go!” This startles Lennie and he ends up snapping her neck by accident. John Steinbeck foreshadows Curley's Wife's death by showing how when Lennie pets soft things, he gets in trouble or ends up killing what he’s

Lennie is an innocent, unknowing of what's going on around him type of person. All he really knows is that he likes things that feel soft and that is what ends up getting him kill. He is so focused on not having George mad at him and not letting him tend to the rabbits that he accidentally kills Curley's wife. “"Don't you go yellin'," he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.”(xx) Lennie just killed Curley's wife and he has done a lot of bad things but never murdered someone. This is the last straw for George and when he hunts him down in the woods, he kills Lennie because he is at a loss of hope for Lennie. Lennie has a tendency to kill small animals by accident and

Well how did she know you just wanted to feel her dress? She jerks back and you you hold on like it was a mouse” (11). Since we know that Curley's wife is the only woman on the ranch we can infer that when the men move something like this will happen again. Also given that women and small animals can both tend to be soft gives the indication that Lennie will want to pet the thing that is soft. Lennie's has innocent intentions but he does not understand appropriate behavior and what society expects of how men act.

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

Lennie is unquestioning in his loyalty to George. We see this in George’s anecdote about the Sacramento River. “‘Jump in.’ An’ he jumps”(P66) Lennie has a childlike obedience. Steinbeck shows us this in the fight between Lennie and Curley. Earlier on, George tells Lennie to not fight with Curley, Lennie remembers this and due to his childlike obedience, his “hands remained at his sides; he was too frightened to defend himself.”(P91). Once George tells Lennie to “Get him”(P91), Lennie immediately crushes Curley’s hand completely. Most mature people would know whether they should break the rules or not, because they wouldn’t get as badly hurt, but with Lennie, it is a different story. It is this childlike obedience that Steinbeck uses to show us how George needs to act as a parent towards Lennie.

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

Finally, John Steinbeck shows off the bullying and meanness as intentional and contrasts it to Lennie’s unintentional meanness, such as when he hurts the puppy (pg 85), the mouse (pg 5), and kills Curley’s wife (pg 91). When Curley wants to fight it is intentional and violent. George explains Lennie’s violence when he says that Lennie "never done it in meanness" (pg 104). Lennie kills because he does not know his own strength – he cuddles or loves to hard. Also, he panics and reacts without thought, such as when he pulled the woman’s dress. (pg 41) Also, showing a contrast in motive is that Lennie is so upset by what he has done, especially to Curley’s wife. He is the only one who shows real remorse.

It shows that Lennie doesn’t really know what he is doing as an innocent bystander, however can follow basic instructions, as if he possesses a mind of a child instead of an adult. Steinback shows this on(pg.63), when Lennie was in the bunkhouse with Curley and smiled because of the thought of the dream farm, but Curley assumes that Lennie is laughing at him so he, “stepped over Lennis like a terrier” and as Lennis tries to retreat Curley, “slashes him with his left and smashed down his nose with his right.” Because Lennie is like a child with his mental disability he reacts in a panicked way and grabs Curley’s hand and crushes it because of his strength. This is also associated with the dream because it shows that everything that one puts their mind to can’t always be accomplished. And because of the thought of the dream farm he formulates the consistent belief of having a better

Lennie does not understand his own strength. When Lennie wanted to have a mouse in his pocket so he could pet it he killed it on accident because he's so strong. On page 3 Lennie said"Uh-uh. Jus' a dead mouse, George. I didn't kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it dead." Other characters think of Lennie as a mindless strong man who is innocent and almost never uses his strength. In terms of Lennie's strength the only time we ever see him purposefully in the book was when curly kept on hitting him and picking on him because in the way of defending himself he was the weakest since he never used his strength. What lennie did with one punch put Curly on the floor. Another character, George describe Lennie as “Strong as a bull." On page 11. So George and many other characters just

Lennie is certainly strong; in the very opening of the book he is described as a bear and is constantly referred to in animal terms. He enjoys "pettin'" soft things, puppies, rabbits, and mice but, he is so strong that he kills them with his fingers as he did in chapter one while George and Lennie were walking. In chapter three, Curley starts a fight with him but after George tells Lennie to fight back Lennie easily crushes Curley's hand. Lennie is physically well coordinated and is capable of doing repetitive manual jobs with skill. This makes things a little easier for George to find them jobs. In chapter two George has to convince the boss to let them stay and work, he states that Lennie is "as strong as a bull" and is "a good damn good worker". However, it is this strength that was the reason why they had to leave Weed. Lennie would not let go of a girl's dress he wanted to pet because he panicked when the girl started to panic, which led to the pair leaving town under a possible rape charge. Again, it is not like Lennie could and would have ever been able to control the strength he has. He cannot have the understanding that he hurts people or

Lennie kills the puppy by petting it to hard and he gets really upset. Curley’s wife offers Lennie to pet her soft hair, Lennie grabs her to hard which resulted in Lennie breaking her neck. George and Lennie’s dream of having a farm one day is ruined because of something Lennie did wrong.

Lennie’s inability to think for himself and know the difference between right and wrong is most apparent in his actions when he talks. Even though Lennie’s physical strength makes him appear to be a person of power, his physical strength is the only form of power that he possesses. Lennie is constantly powerless against his mind’s perception that limits him to behave in a child-like manner against the consequences of his actions. For example, he knows that he needs to act correctly and does not want to do bad things, however he lacks the mental capability of an adult that lets him differentiate what’s right from wrong causing him to rely on George for protection and guidance.

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.