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Schizophrenia In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Schizophrenia is a disease that affects 1.5 million people throughout the world and may cause memory loss, hallucinations, and problems with restraint. Throughout the novel, Lennie demonstrates severe memory loss, visual and auditory hallucinations as well as a child like lack of restraint.

Lennie Smalls from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men suffers from severe memory loss. Throughout the novel it is apparent that Lennie often forgets things, for example “I forgot’ Lennie said ‘I tried not to forget. Honest to god I did George”(4). Webmd says that schizophrenia is linked to distorted thoughts and can be linked to memory loss.

Towards the end of the novel, Lennie had audial and visual hallucinations, probably caused by the traumatic events
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In Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the reader Lennie’s mental state as opposed to telling the reader. On page 6, Steinbeck displays that Lennie is mentally immature. Steinbeck writes about Lennie taking a dead mouse out of his pocket and saying that he likes to pet it. This shows that he doesn't have the mental development of an average adult, perhaps one of a young child. Similarly, Steinbeck shows how Lennie is forgetful, to the point of having his mental disabilities being obvious.

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