ipl-logo

How Is Mental Health Presented In Of Mice And Men

962 Words4 Pages

Throughout Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, mental health is constantly displayed because one of the main characters, Lennie, deals with mental health issues throughout the book, and this tests the character and loyalty of his best friend, George, in many different scenarios throughout the book. Mental health is extremely relevant in the world today, but this book shows how mental health has been relevant for a long time, people just never really understood how it affected older generations, until we became more knowledgeable about it. In this book, mental health is an underlying factor that is never actually mentioned but is extremely obvious when you look for it after the fact. Lennie is one of the main characters in this book, but throughout …show more content…

This all adds up to the issues that occur at the end. At the end, George must kill Lennie to avoid the wrath that Curley will put onto Lennie for killing his wife. Lennie dealt with so many mental issues within the course of the story, and it made him commit certain crimes because he couldn’t think properly, and he was so stressed about everything that had been happening to him and George. Mental health is relevant throughout the ending because this happens in the world today. When people are very stressed and deal with anxiety, they make decisions that can cost them their future because they do not know what is going on and they do not know what to do during certain tribulations that may happen throughout their lifetimes. Before George killed Lennie, he made Lennie feel even worse about himself and said, “I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn't have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl” (120). George made Lennie feel even more guilty throughout the story, and this has a lot to do with Lennie’s behavior. Lennie never really had support from George, and he was already dealing with a mental disorder. So, on top of that, Lennie could never feel any sense of belonging, which led to his poor decisions, which then led to George having to kill him, before he was killed by

Show More
Related
210 Words | 1 Pages

There are many reasons why George had to kill Lennie, many of the actions Lennie made contributed to the painful decision George had to make in the end. George knows just how easy his life could be without Lennie, since Lennie is constantly making mistakes and can't tell right from wrong. Often George and Lennie find themselves running from lynch mobs, or looking for new work because due to lennie's actions. Lennie has all intent of being good, but he has the mind of a child what is often getting Them in trouble. Having the mind of a child makes George a role model for lennie, but George finds it hard to control lennie.

Read More
276 Words | 2 Pages

George made the right decision because Lennie wasnt good to himself nor others. The same problem happened with Candy's old dog that was shot earlier in the novel. " He ain't no good to you, Candy. An he ain't no good to himself"(44). Another reason why I agree with George killing Lennie is because Curley was going to kill Lennie himself.

Read More
442 Words | 2 Pages

George thought he was doing the right thing by killing Lennie, but he only did it in self-interest. He didn't want to face repercussions or consequences for the things Lennie had done. Even though George says continuously throughout the story that he would look out for Lennie, he still ended up betraying him. George expressed his want to distance himself from Lennies crime after him and Candy found Curley’s wife’s body in the barn on pg. 95 when he states, “O.K. give me a couple of minutes then, and you come runnin’out an’ tell like you jus’ found her.

Read More
597 Words | 3 Pages

In the book George said, “Lennie if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush.” This shows us that Lennie has a history of getting in trouble and that in the future Lennie will probably get in more trouble. From this we can tell that George made a good decision to make sure that Lennie doesn't get in any more trouble. Next, George Killed Lennie because he knew that their dream would never come true.

Read More
532 Words | 3 Pages

The main reason George killed Lennie is because Lennie would have killed somebody again. And the evidence is clearly there, the pet mice that he killed, the poor puppy that he accidently hit to hard, and especially Curley’s wife. He almost killed the girl in weed if he had gone any further. The sad thing is is that he doesn't know how strong he really is, nor does he know what he’s done wrong in the first place.

Read More
545 Words | 3 Pages

In the book, Lennie is seen as this child-like man with a lower level of intelligence that just doesn’t know what’s happening around him. He is mentally handicapped and has no ability to understand abstract concepts like right from wrong. He does not intentionally do the things that he gets into trouble for but when he does, he is unable to understand the consequences of his actions. Lennie only defines his terms of consequences by whether or not George is “going to give me hell” or “George isn’t gonna let me tend to the rabbits no more”. He is often clueless of his actions and gets into various amounts of trouble because of this.

Read More
652 Words | 3 Pages

It is clear that George did not have the right to end Lennie 's life in such a selfish way. George always talks to Lennie about how fabulous they are when they are together at their own ranch and from day to day I end up with their life in a very cruel way. In conclusion, it can be said that George 's reasons for ending George 's life were enough to do so since Lennie was a very dependent person and could not stand alone. George tried to help him at all times as far as he could, but still Lennie was still in serious trouble, that 's precisely the reason why George wanted to prevent Lennie suffering in the future because he realized that he could not live alone.

Read More
621 Words | 3 Pages

John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, gr published in 1937. Steinbeck shows how Lennie is suffering from his mental illness which causes him to display childlike behaviors through the use of authorial choices such as repetition, foreshadowing, and simile. Steinbeck has spoken and wrote about suffering through the character Lennie which perfectly demonstrates how he is suffering due to mental illness and how it is affecting him to do childlike behaviors. Due to Lennie's Small troubles always has found his way.

Read More
436 Words | 2 Pages

Though his character, Lennie, a man with the mentality of a child, John Steinbeck shows that mental illness can inhibit one’s access to the American Dream of individual success. Firstly, Lennie must travel with George, his longtime friend. If Lennie were to live by himself, George tells him that he would get shot as if he were “a coyote” (Steinbeck 13). Because George tells his companion this, the reader concludes that Lennie would die in some way if he was on his own. Next, Lennie is the reason that he and George are on the run in the beginning of the novel.

Read More
1207 Words | 5 Pages

In John Steinbeck’s 1937 novella, Of Mice and Men he explores some of these thought-provoking questions through one of the most infamous characters in American Literature -- Lennie Small. Although Lennie does possess qualities from a plethora of mental disorders and illnesses -- the leading being Sotos syndrome

Read More
807 Words | 4 Pages

Lennie has a mental disability that makes him have memory loss, low mental intelligence, and acts like a child. He is a huge, exceedingly strong man with a love for soft things. He is constantly getting into a lot of trouble (acidental murder), and his best friend George has to protect him. Steinbeck’s purpose of making Lennie have a mental disability/disorder is to demonstrate how screwed up society is.

Read More
1075 Words | 5 Pages

Of Mice and Men: Dependence and Outcomes Themes of dependency and the need humans have for one another has been a strong topic of interest for many decades. Finding the stability in yourself to fulfill your own needs is a difficult task for anyone living in an environment like our Earth, especially those with physical and mental disabilities. In the novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the two main characters, Lennie and George rely on each other heavily, sometimes without even realizing it. Although Lennie is a very large man of size, it is clear to the reader that he has a heavy mental disability, causing his reliance on George to be strong.

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

Lennie with his simple mind, always gets into trouble. This time, Lennie gets himself in a bind once again, that George can’t save him from. George decision to kill Lennie in the story, was due to his responsibility, sympathy, and love for Lennie. George’s decision to kill Lennie was out of sympathy for him.

Read More
857 Words | 4 Pages

Of Mice and Men: Lennie’s Mental Illness The novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, is a story about two men and their companionship. The story takes place in California during the Great Depression. The two men have a dream to one day own a farm of their own. This dream never comes true and they are forced to work for someone else on a ranch for the rest of their lives.

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

The book Of Mice and Men is full of puzzling examples of the human condition, from Lennie and his mental disability to Curley only caring about his social appearance. With characters like these two, the book exploits the human condition that concerns circumstances life has given you. John Steinbeck brings to life what being a laborer in the American depression meant to the men and one woman who had enough personality to stand out. Steinbeck shows the human condition of men while they survive in the American depression.

Read More

More about How Is Mental Health Presented In Of Mice And Men

Related Topics

Open Document