The Plentiful Disabilities of Lennie Small
Every human being with the IQ of at-least 70, understands that Lennie, the prominent protagonist of the novel Of Mice and Men, isn’t average. But what exactly is preventing him from being “average”? In the novel, Lennie participates in simple activities, yet completes the activities in the most inhuman way. John Steinbeck writes, “Lennie dipped his whole head under, hat and all, and then sat up on the bank and his hat dripped down on his blue coat and ran down his back.” (Steinbeck 3). A five year-old would know to simply dip his hand in the water and take small sips. Why does Lennie choose to do things so differently? If it is not obvious, yet Lennie is clearly affected by numerous Mental disorders.
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Rochester edu defines intellectual disabilities to be below-average in cognitive ability also with significant limitations in adaptive skills areas. (Rochester edu). An example of when Lennie proved to have below average cognitive ability was when George expressed, “ Used to play jokes on ‘im cause he was too dumb to even take care of himself... to even know he had a joke played on him” (Steinbeck 40), George’s statement solidifies the argument of whether Lennie is “Mentally Retarded”. In actuality, Lennie shows signs he knows he has a mental disability and to find work-around for it. In Chapter 1 in Of Mice and Men the narrator writes, “Lennie, who had been watching, imitated George exactly. He pushed himself back, drew up his knees, embraced them, looked over to George to see whether he had it just right. He pulled his hat down a little more over his eyes, the way George's hat was.” (Steinbeck 4). Lennie in this scenario is trying to be like George, he dresses like him and attempts to act like him. Why is this significant? A mentally retarded individual would not know how to take care of themselves so, to imitate person who knows exactly would they are doing is Lennie’s way of unintentionally declaring himself as a normal