Though his character, Lennie, a man with the mentality of a child, John Steinbeck shows that mental illness can inhibit one’s access to the American Dream of individual success. Firstly, Lennie must travel with George, his longtime friend. If Lennie were to live by himself, George tells him that he would get shot as if he were “a coyote” (Steinbeck 13). Because George tells his companion this, the reader concludes that Lennie would die in some way if he was on his own. Next, Lennie is the reason that he and George are on the run in the beginning of the novel. Because he liked it, Lennie felt a woman’s dress, but panicked and held on to her when she yelled. Lennie would not let go of the dress until George hits “him over the head with a fence