Lennie In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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All characters within the novel Of Mice and Men are innocent and suffer in their own ways. For example, Lennie Small is innocent because of his child-like personality caused by his mental disability, his love for soft things and his accidental killings of animals and Curley's wife. Referring to page 25 of the novel Of Mice and Men, George told their boss, "He got kicked in the head by a horse when he was a kid. He's awright. Just ain't bright." Initially, that's what I thought that caused Lennie' disability, but I was wrong. Lennie was born with the disability and that is proven in page 26, when Lennie asked George, "I wasn't kicked in the head with no horse, was I, George?" Then George replied, "Be a damn good thing if you was." What George had implied meant that or proved that Lennie wasn't …show more content…

You ain't so little as mice. I didn't bounce you hard." Lennie's eulogy to the puppy proved that, once again, the killing was accidental as he is still oblivious to his own strength. On pages 102 and 103, Curley's wife allowed Lennie to stroke her hair because she wants him to feel just how soft it is, but what she doesn't know is that Lennie wouldn't let go just like how he wouldn't let go of some maiden's dress because he was frozen and doesn't know what to do when the maiden started screaming and got accused of rape. Curley's wife shouted at Lennie to let go of her hair before he ruins it, but he doesn't listen, then she started screaming and her screams triggered Lennie's anger; and before you know it, Lennie broke Curley's Wife's neck. This again proves how he doesn't mean to kill things but his strength and anger gets the best of him before he could even think straight. Hence, Lennie's innocence is proved with his child-like personality, his fondness of soft things and accidental killings. And due to his innocence, he suffered with a gunshot to the back of his head in the

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