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How Does Lennie Small Present The Mental Disorder In Of Mice And Men

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To begin, Lennie Small displays severe signs of a certain mental disorder throughout John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men. The audience can clearly understand there is an issue with Lennie’s ability to think and act. However, the question lies on the actual mental issue, and after research, it is indisputable that the character suffers from a dissociative disorder. For those who do not know, a person with a dissociative disorder experiences immense amounts of stress in uncomfortable situations. “These disorders usually are associated with overwhelming stress, which may be the result of traumatic events, accidents, or disasters that may be experienced or witnessed by the individual” (Marks 17). While the reader is not informed much of Lennie’s past, it is without question uncanny to his behavior. …show more content…

From the beginning of the story, George always seems to get irked by Lennie’s lack of recollection. He cannot seem to remember anything George advises him, besides the American dream they share, which seems to be vividly engraved in his brain. George makes fun of him for this at times, while other times he gets understandably impatient. “‘I wasn't kicked in the head with no horse, was I, George?’ ‘Be a damn good thing if you was,’ George said viciously. ‘Save ever'body a hell of a lot of trouble’” (Steinbeck 23). George has gotten used to Lennie’s memory, but it is fairly new to the reader early on. With this being said, this points directly to dissociative disorder. “Dissociation is a disconnection between a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions or sense of who he or she is….Dissociative symptoms can potentially disrupt every area of mental functioning” (What are Dissociative Disorders?). This makes sense, as it is evident Lennie’s brain is not operating the way it should. In conclusion, it is beyond obvious that Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men suffers from a dissociative

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When Wrong is Right At the end of “Of Mice and Men” George is faced with grim decision of shooting his best friend and family member Lennie to ease both of their future pains. George has known Lennie for mostly all of his life and he knew that when Lennie was dead their dream of having a house would be over. George then makes up his mind and shoots Lennie making him think if it was the right decision or it was wrong. In this case the decision was right because of many reasons with one being that Lennie would never be able to survive in the world that they live in.

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Lennie also looks up to George so much that he often repeats his actions. “Lennie, who had been watching, imitated George exactly. He pushed himself back, drew up his knees, embraced them, looked over to George to see whether he had it just right. He pulled his hat down a little more over his eyes, the way George's hat was” (Steinbeck, 4). Lennie does this not only because he looks up to George, but because he wants to impress in a way that in his head, makes up for him forgetting, and doing “bad things.”

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They use to make fun of my accent they would taunt me and say “Howdy y’all!” and act like a cowboy. In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men setting of the 1930’s in Salinas Valley, California we meet the static and round character Lennie Smalls and his best friend George a dynamic character. While it is obvious to the reader that Lennie has a mental disability because of his actions, it is never directly stated.

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In the short novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck presents a variety of characters all with their own unique personalities. The author carves the characters into their own individual person. One of the main characters, Lennie Small, is a pure example of this. Lennie is a static character, which means that he does not undergo any significant changes throughout the novella. However, he is extremely impactful to the story.

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Of Mice and Men is widely revered as a masterpiece of fiction, and part of what makes this book have such a compelling story is the diverse characters; one of these characters named Lennie Small has distinct attributes due to a mental condition that ultimately affects how the plot progresses. At the beginning of the book, it is foreshadowed that an awful event happened at a place called Weed because of Lennie, and it is later discovered that Lennie accidentally scared a girl because he was trying to pet her dress; Lennie has an obsession with petting soft things and sometimes people; however, he does not realize how massive he is and as a result, he can scare or hurt them. Self awareness is a vital trait to have, for it can affect many aspects of a situation one might find themselves in; however, Lennie does not realize how large he is and as a result, scared the lady in Weed when he tried to pet her

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People today with mental disabilities are often criticized for not being “up to par” with everyone else in the world. This is true especially in the 1920’s, in which the novel Of Mice and Men takes place. Take Lennie Small for example, a large and hefty man, who has a mental disability. He, as a character, is blamed for the heinous act of murdering the antagonist’s wife, whose name is never revealed. It is true that Lennie does fracture her neck, but he does so without knowing.

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In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Lennie is an outcast. As a kid something happened to Lennie that made him the way he is. George told the boss “‘... He got kicked in the head by a horse when he was a kid’” (Steinbeck, 22)

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In the novel Of Mice and Men, written by John steinbeck, George Milton saves his best friend Lennie Small from being lynched by a mob of fellow ranch hands, and chooses to kill him himself, in a peaceful way, much like Carlson killed Candy’s dog. The character of Lennie Small clearly has the mental capability of a small child. Lennie is on the verge of getting killed by curley because lennie accidentally murdered his wife in the barn. Curley's wife instigated Lennie to kill her leaving George no choice but to kill his best friend saving him from having a painful death. George has been like Lennies caretaker because they've known each other since they were kids forming a natural friendship.

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Lennie Smalls one of the main characters in the novel of Mice and Men, is impacted by the human rights issue of discrimination and living with an intellectual disability. “Intellectual Disability, formerly referred to as "mental retardation, is characterized by "significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills” (Death Penalty Info). Lennie exhibits several signs of having an Intellectual disability, for example, he has problems remembering things. George is constantly giving Lennie directions that he has to repeat several times to help him remember.

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(Steinbeck 90). Lennie also hyperfixates on the puppies in the book, sitting and petting them for amounts of time. His memory is really bad, too. George always scolds him when he doesn’t remember any plans, and he never remembers any of them. All of these things are indications of his Autism; however, Lennie also shows signs of

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Lennie is a big character involving this stories theme by still having friends even though is very different from George and all the other workers. Some readers might think that Lennie has a brain injury that causes his forgetfulness and is a mean person who wants to cause havoc. Despite, the readers thinking that Lennie has a brain injury, it is clear that those allegations are false and George only says this to cover up Lennie’s stupidity. Although, some critics may think that Lennie is a mean person always trying to cause havoc, it is obvious that Lennie is a nice man with a small mind who does not know how to control his strength. Lennie is a dynamic character with observations being made about his forgetfulness and kindness.

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An intellectual disability is a mental condition characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior. During the 1930’s, many people were not aware of the effects of intellectual disabilities; they were led to believe that the people who had these mental disabilities did not deserve the same amount of respect as everyone else. Inside the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the character Lennie allegorically represents the stigmas that were associated with people who had intellectual disabilities in the 1930’s through childish behaviors, animalistic qualities and being seemingly crazy. One of the most repetitive examples that explain why Lennie allegorically represents the stigmas associated

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In the novel Of Mice and Men it is very obvious that there is something wrong with Lennie. He has a childlike demeanor, has memory loss, and seems to panic in stressful situations. Although Steinbeck never mentions what is wrong with Lennie in the novel, all of these symptoms match up to one intellectual disability, Autism. The first symptom of Autism is sensory issues.

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“No matter how much sometimes you dare to dream, send happy thoughts into the universe, no matter what you do some of your dreams will never come true” (Unknown). In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, at the time of the Great Depression, two men, George and Lennie, venture to California in hopes to find work. Because Lennie is wanted for raping a woman, George and Lennie must escape the “law” by fleeing to the next town. Through the character of Lennie, Steinbeck shows that issues outside the control of an individual often limit the achievement of his dreams. “‘But he never hurt her.

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Demitri hines Period 3 1/30/2018 In John Steinbeck 's classic novela of Mice and Men, we see the character Lennie smalls descending into the stereotype of being handicapped. During the time of the great depression the handicapped never reach there American dream. Steinbeck crafts Lennie a sincerely mentally handicapped man, as an archetype the mentally handicapped in our society in order to imply that the type of people are excluded from the american dream. Lennie doesn 't get to accomplish his american dream due to him being mentally handicapped, but also gets in trouble even though he doesnt mean to.

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