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Mental Problems In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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In the 1930’s having mental problems was seen as being unbright. People back then did not understand what being mentally challenged was they would treat them like any other person which would make it hard on the person who had the challenges.
In the book george stays with Lennie so he doesn't get into trouble. In the book lennie grabs a ladies dress because George wasn't around to stop him. George likes to refer to himself and george as people like us. People like george and Lennie are the people who live off of close to nothing and travel a lot to get new different jobs.
George takes care of lennie, lennie can not think for himself but if someone tells him to do something he will do it the best that he can. Lennie doesn't know his own strength, in the book he is holding a mouse and crushes it in his hand by accident. He didn't mean to crush the mouse he was trying to pet it but doesn't know his own strength. …show more content…

In the book Curley's wife is shown as a pretty woman who is used by men. She wanted to go to Hollywood and become famous, but because she married Curley who lived on a farm she had to stay at home and clean up. In the book they don’t give her a name, they leave her unnamed because in the time period that the book was written women were seen as inanimate objects. They were used for cleaning and taking care of children. George talks about how Curley's wife is trying lure men into touching her so she can feel wanted. “I seen ‘em poison before,but i never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her.”(Steinbeck 32). After Lennie first meets Curley’s wife he says

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Of Mice and Mental Impairment Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a fiction novella set in the time of the Great Depression. It follows George Milton and Lennie Small, two itinerant workers with the same dream; they hope to someday get a farm of their own. However, Lennie has a severe mental disability, so George constantly has to tend to Lennie and help him get out of messes. In the novel, George and Lennie travel to their new job on a ranch in Salinas Valley, California.

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There have been many recorded attacks on colored people in the history books. Trayvon Martin was a colored seventeen year old from Miami and was fatally shot by George Zimmerman. The murder of Trayvon Martin was a big spark in the movement of Black Lives Matter also known as #BLM. The #BlackLivesMatter movement has been spreading all around the world for around 3-4 years and was initially created after the murder of Trayvon Martin by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. The killing of Trayvon Martin had near to no reason behind it.

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George took on the responsibilities of taking care of Lennie after Lennie's aunt passed away. There was no one else who would have done this for Lennie. Lennie has followed George anywhere he goes for a long time. George had helped Lennie a lot along their journey. He had gotten them jobs being ranch hands, which Lennie always ended up screwing up.

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Lennie says, “Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you hard” (Steinbeck 85). Lennie is talking to a puppy that he killed by accident while playing with it. Lennie is a big man who does not know his strengths and harms things without knowing how he does

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In the book Of mice and men, One of the main characters is named lennie. Lennie is the one with the mental disease. How lennie likes to have fun is he likes to touch soft, pretty things. He likes to keep ahold of those things. As lennie and george ( the main characters) were walking to their job, lennie pulls out a dead mouse.

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923 Words | 4 Pages

For the entire duration of the story George is taking care of Lennie who portrays a lack of ability to take of himself, George through the book implies to the reader without Lennie he could have better chances in life but as George says these things and constantly brags to Lennie about how he could leave him he continues to stay with Lennie and not pursuing opportunities that would be more convenient and better without Lennie in return weighing George down because he does not leave. In the book, the author wrote “if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an no trouble. No mess ' all, and when the end of the month come I coul' take my fifty bucks and go into town and get what‘ ever I want. Why, I could stay in a cat house night.

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1369 Words | 6 Pages

We know Lennie does not mean to do bad things but is just unlucky and gets in trouble alot. We saw how many times Lennie got in trouble making us readers assume that something was going to happen to poor Lennie. In this case it does. In the beginning of the story George gets mad at Lennie saying hoe his life would be so much easier without him and wish Lennie was never with him. Saying hoe Lennie is the one who makes all the trouble and George has so much responsibility.

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She was only written with negative character traits which made it so characters or readers were never able to sympathize with her. Next, no character ever had a turning point where they saw Curley’s wife as more than exactly that, Curley’s wife. And finally, he never gave her a name. There was a great imbalance between sexism and making the readers question the sexism. If Steinbeck had chosen to give the woman some justice the message against sexism would have been stronger.

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Lennie’s mental difficulties often frustrate George, and at times he lashes out at Lennie. When Lennie complains, George explodes, “‘Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy’”(Steinbeck 11). Lennie doesn’t understand that George can’t give him everything. At times, George gets angry that he always has to support Lennie, “‘You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get’”(11).

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2211 Words | 9 Pages

In the beginning of the book, Steinbeck gives his readers enough knowledge about Lennie to become aware of Lennie’s disability. Throughout the novel, it shows how the other characters react to Lennie, giving the readers a good idea of how the mentally challenged were treated in this time. George was given the responsibility of taking care of Lennie by Lennie’s aunt Clara (Steinbeck 1-110). His aunt knew if Lennie was left alone he would be sent to a mental hospital and be taken care of poorly. Lennie often asks, “You ain't gonna leave me, are ya George?”

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384 Words | 2 Pages

Finally, Steinbeck dehumanizes Curley by the negative criticism that always pursues her and her loss of identity when accompanying someone or something. This is why she is always commonly known as “Curley’s Wife”, proving that she is an unimportant and insignificant character in this book. Plus, everybody in the book says that Curley’s wife causes trouble for everyone; as George says, “She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger,” (Steinbeck, 49) and is constantly getting blame for all that goes wrong in Soledad; as Candy says, You God damn tramp. You done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad.

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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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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.

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1699 Words | 7 Pages

During the time of the Great Depression people did not know about mental disabilities and that is why Lennie was not treated fairly. Lennie got into a lot of trouble at work, which caused for him and George to find different jobs all the time. An example of when Lennie and George had to leave a job because of Lennie’s actions was when they were in Weed and Lennie touched the girl’s dress and would not let go. The only reason why Lennie did that was because he saw something he liked and he did not want to let go and he became scared when she started to scream. People during this time period were unaware of mental disabilities which made it hard for them to get jobs.

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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.

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