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Character Analysis Of Lennie Small In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

506 Words3 Pages

Once in school there was a girl who couldn’t speak well. She could only make out a few words, but not sentences. Kids bullied her because of her issue. Teachers ignored her and let it slip. The kids bullied her even physically, and nothing was done to help her. Why did this happen? People are treated differently, but society does not wish to change at the whim of others. In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, set in the 1930’s of Salinas Valley, California. Now main characters, a static character Lennie Small, who has a disability that he has trouble processing things, being slower than others. And his friend George who takes care of him before and on the ranch, “Lennie smiled to himself. “strong as a bull,” he repeated. George scowled at him, and Lennie dropped his head in shame at having forgotten.”(Steinbeck 22). Although Steinbeck does not say Lennie is disabled, it is implied through his actions, speech, and a short part of his younger life explained by George to another character, “I used to have a hell...lifted a finger against me,”(Steinbeck 40). Lennie Small is a static character that is implied to have a mental disability and cannot function as an adult, but as a toddler. Many times due to his strength and his body he has ruined or made a …show more content…

He life has so far been trying to keep a steady job while caring and looking after Lennie, who easily gets them kicked out of almost every place they go to. “An’ you ain’t gonna do no bad things like you done in Weed, neither,”(Steinbeck 8). George honestly knew he would be better off without Lennie. But because of Lennie’s aunt, he would keep him safe even if a town was after him. Multiple times he has saved Lennie from others who misinterpreted him for a fool or a creep, when really they acted on impulse than understand the situation at

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"We're born alone we live alone die alone. Only through love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone” Orson Welles. In John Steinbeck's novel, “Of Mice and Men”, Steinbeck focuses on the struggle of having a disability while struggling to get by during the American Great Depression on a Californian ranch life. Even though one may have to live around their disability, they do not let that become a big stepping stone in the life, whether they know about it or not. In John Steinbeck's novel, “Of Mice and Men”, Lennie Small, Carlson and Crooks are three great examples of how they keep living their lives despite the facts that they each have a disabilities to their lives.

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People of his type would often end up in a mental institution and get treated like an animal. Slim, the wisest of Steinbeck’s characters points out the detriment this could have on Lennie when he says, “An’ s’pose they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good, George” (Steinbeck 97). With Slim stating that, we know that people with handicaps are looked down upon in this time era.

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In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses a line from Robert Burns poem “To a Mouse” to portray the theme that the main characters failure is inevitable; the forces acting upon this are Lennie’s display of his growing disability, and that nobody believes they can do it, plus the men’s inability to stay in one place. First of all, Steinbeck uses Lennie’s growing disability as a force acting on the main characters inevitable failure. After taking away a dead mouse, George said, “that mouse ain’t fresh, Lennie; and besides you’ve broke it pettin’ it” (9). This is the first time we see that Lennie is capable of hurting small things down to killing them. He did proclaim that he didn’t kill the mouse but George told the readers that this isn’t the first

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Throughout the novel, Lennie's innocence and childlike demeanor are emphasized, as well as his tendency to unintentionally cause harm. This evidence shows that Lennie's actions were not deliberate, and he should not be held fully responsible for them. Lennie is portrayed as an aloof and childlike

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