Special Needs In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Throughout the centuries the growth in special needs children and adults have increased dramatically. Although there isn’t many statistics nor many records of how many special needs people there were in the early 1930’s it’s still apparent that they were there. The book “Of Mice And Men” written by John Steinbeck he uses the characters Lennie, who appears to be special needs, and George, Lennie’s caretaker, to show the contrast between the two mental capacities and the role of dependency on another. In Steinbeck’s “Of Mice And Men” the character Lennie Smalls shows that the actions and consequences differ from people who have special needs or mental disorders from those who don’t.

“Nearly one-fifth of all Americans—more than 54 million

Which is a huge amount of people compared to the early 1900’s. People with mental disabilities in the 1930’s weren’t treated for their disorders, they were given no therapy, no sympathy, they received nothing from the majority of society at that time. When someone has a disability or were seen to have abnormal behavior that effected their work productivity it was a burden to society (1930’s America). Most special needs children were removed from their homes at an early age. They were placed in group homes or large professional institutions. Many people with special needs benefit from structure and routine so they would use heavy tranquilization and repetition daily to keep all of the people in order and structured (1930’s America).

In “Of Mice And Men” it is obvious that Lennie suffers from a

What people fail to realize is that special needs is nothing anyone can control, it’s simply a part of the brain that could be missing, damaged, or not fully developed (Attention Issues And The Brain). People with certain types of mental illness will result in impaired judgement, their disability can inhibit their ability to logically make decisions for themselves. Some have self destructive behaviors or a child like state of mind that can interfere with decision making (Anatomy of a Special Needs Child). So when it comes to their actions they may not completely understand what they’re doing or the outcome of the choice that they’re making. Also some people who have special needs don’t understand what consequences are, so punishing them or reprimanding them for things may be pointless because they can’t comprehend why what they did was wrong (Attention Issues and the Brain). So their actions and their consequences may differ from the actions and consequences that other people deal with in everyday