Most teenagers spend some time during their high school English years reading a popular novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. What those same kids don’t know, is that Steinbeck didn’t originally name his novel the title it bears today. Critics claimed that “Something that Happened” was too simple. After much thought, the book title was changed to part of a line in the Robert Burns poem To a Mouse. What didn’t change, was the overall feel that this novel gives to those of all ages. The characters and the relationships between them in Of Mice and Men provides readers with a greater sense of what real friendship looks like.
Steinbeck was born in California in 1902. Through his own experience of growing up and working as a farm hand, he was
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Because Lennie has a mental disability, he comes off as very vulnerable and helpless. However, Lennie has unbelievable physical strength that is beyond his understanding. Throughout the story, the reader learns that Lennie views the world as a child would. His attraction to soft, fuzzy things gets him in trouble more times than not. First, he touches a woman’s dress in the town of Weed and causes a scene. The woman believed that Lennie was trying to touch her sexually. Simply wanting to feel the material of her dress never came to mind. This was the first sign that Lennie didn’t mentally understand that his actions have consequences. Once the two men are settled into the farm, Lennie is gifted a puppy from Slim – whose dog just had a litter. Again, because Lennie didn’t understand that he had to be gentle with the pup, an incident occurred and the puppy didn’t live. Curley’s wife discovers Lennie in the barn with the puppy and offers for him to pet her hair as it was soft. As most probably guessed, Lennie was unable to control himself when Curley’s wife no longer wanted her hair to be touched. Lennie snapped her neck in an attempt to get her to stop talking and ended up killing her as well. Lennie provides the story with a feeling of hope in the beginning. Everyone is rooting for him and wants him to live out the dream of owning and living on a farm with George. However, as the story unfolds Lennie shifts from a character to root for to a character to be nervous