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The Role Of Disabilities In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Scott Hamilton once stated, “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” Disability is only an obstacle in a person's life, but it does not set the identity of that person. John Steinbeck's novel shows how disabled people are treated differently by writing about their heartbreak and sorrow. Many individuals with disabilities feel that a disability is a wall blocking them from achieving their goals. In our society, people are told what to be and what to do with their disability, but one should have the choice to carve their pathway to success. In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrayed a political statement by looking at mental and physical disabilities through different characters such as Curley's Wife, Crooks, and Lennie. Curley's wife is used to represent how women were treated during the 1930’s and almost treated with a disability. Women were portrayed as the help and they were supposed to stay home and work while the strong brave men went out and got money to support the family. By Steinbeck not giving Curley's wife a name he is showing how she is connected to Curly with an Invisible rope. This treating her with a disability because she …show more content…

Mental and physical disabilities are shown through how the different characters interact with their environment. Disabilities can create obstacles in a person's life but they also allow for other people to create an identity for them. Steinbeck shows that disabilities can create a political statement. They all had dreams to be something better than what they were but the tag that society gave them they were unable to pursue their thoughts and ideas. All these characters possed the same characteristic of being hopeless but in reality if they were given hope they may have been able to achieve their ambitions, prospects, and

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"We're born alone we live alone die alone. Only through love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone” Orson Welles. In John Steinbeck's novel, “Of Mice and Men”, Steinbeck focuses on the struggle of having a disability while struggling to get by during the American Great Depression on a Californian ranch life. Even though one may have to live around their disability, they do not let that become a big stepping stone in the life, whether they know about it or not. In John Steinbeck's novel, “Of Mice and Men”, Lennie Small, Carlson and Crooks are three great examples of how they keep living their lives despite the facts that they each have a disabilities to their lives.

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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.

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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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As recognized, “One of the fundamental issues regarding the portrayal of Lennie in Of Mice and Men lies in the way that Steinbeck position the reader from the very beginning to identify with George” (Lawrence). Once readers have their views aligned with a different character, it is hard to create that empathy, especially if the main character doesn’t support disabilities themselves. However, when empathy is created it can completely alter the audience’s perception of the character and often the entire disability itself. This idea is supported in

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