How Does Steinbeck Show Innocence In Of Mice And Men

A child’s innocence often is perceived as cute and pure. Yet, an adult like Lennie, innocence is seen as stupidity and ignorant. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Lennie is a simple man who is strong and kind. Although he is not the brightest and often is perceived as rude towards other characters for his lack of knowledge, he truly has a mind of a four year old and cannot understand adult-like thinking. Lennie is not a “stupid” man who is cruel but an innocent child-like man who is too loving for his own good. Lennie often is unaware of what is going on. As a character he exhibits a child-like manner. Although his best friend George tries to keep him in check, he forgets almost everything George tries to teach him. Steinbeck physically describes Lennie as very strong and large, which is contradicting to his personality; simple and kind. Yet Lennie is unaware of his strength which ultimately causes many problems. Right at the start Lennie kills a small mouse. Which only occurs because he had found it cute and soft so he wanted to pet it. Which displays his childlike tendencies and shares the

Since arriving at the new farm, almost all the characters see Lennie as stupid and rude for his lack of understanding. But they refuse to look deeply into his character and actually understand him and how he is just scared. As the end of the book unravels Lennie kills Curley's Wife and ends up getting killed by George, his friend. Curley had made an assumption although true that Lennie killed her. He believed Lennie was a ruthless murderer as did the others beside George as he knew what actually happened. Often adults blame the children first because of there lack of knowledge, just as Curley did to Lennie.. Lennie had not meant to kill anyone and knew he had done something bad right after it had happened. He even spoke out trying not to talk to her but him being like a child he can not stand up for