One in four Americans, 18 and older, suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. This translates to 57.7 million people in the U.S. In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, two men, George and Lennie, are wandering from job to job in the state of California during the Great Depression. George cares for Lennie because Lennie is mentally handicapped. During the story, Lennie gets himself into different mounts of trouble and George helps him get out of it. At the end of the story, George has to make a decision that will impact both of them greatly. I believe that, in George’s mind, he didn’t have any other options but to kill Lennie. Throughout the story, is it seen that George has to act as a father to Lennie. George takes care of Lennie because he can’t do it on his own. There is evidence that the pressure with taking care of Lennie gets to George and sometimes becomes too much. “God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work an’ no trouble.” “ An’ whatta I got, I got you! You can’t keep a job and lose me ever’ job I get.” (Steinbeck 12.) These are a few statements that show George’s frustration with Lennie and having to care for him. This also shows that George has …show more content…
It is known that people of that time didn’t know what to do with disabled people so they just isolated them from the public. If Lennie was brought to jail for what he did, he would have been treated as any other criminal and not as he needed to be. He would have been isolated from everyone because of his disability. “An' s'pose they lock him up an' strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain't no good, George.” (Steinbeck 48.) This is what Slim said to George about Lennie going to jail. Slim knew that the law wouldn’t give Lennie the treatment he needed. When George thought of this, he came to the conclusion that he didn’t have another