The harsh reality is one which hit everyone in America in the 1930. People found work hard to find and crime was on the uprise. This meant, unfortunately, that innocent people were the easy prey and, as we see in the Of Mice and Men, there were plenty of characters that were easy prey. Of Mice and Men characters have and do thing that make them vulnerable in way which do cause trouble. In this essay, that harsh reality and easy prey will be shown through to see which characters are the most vulnerable. Due to child like qualities, Lennie is a person which would be easy prey and a vulnerable person. Lennie is a vulnerable person who is quite dumb. His has an obsession for touching soft thing and this will often lead him in to trouble. But poor Lennie is an innocent person who means no harm to anybody. When he and Curley get into a fight Lennie is too shocked to do any thing. He tries to be innocent but, when told to by George grabs Curley’s fist and crushes it. George is Lennie’s best friend and Lennie does every thing he tells him to do as demonstrated in the fight with “But you tol...
Steinbeck upon creating the novel in the 1930’s seen and was experiencing some of the things he wrote on. In the beginning he introduced to us a friendship between two opposite men. One man, George Wilson, is a little man compared to his companion. His friend, on the other hand, was a giant who was naïve as a new born baby. His name was Lennie Smalls. Lennie Smalls was a character that Steinbeck used to allow his audience to see that although he had a good heart and was seemingly helpless, that one day his strength would be the cause of his downfall. Questions on whether or not Steinbeck’s readers should believe in the image in which it is given or primarily based it on the novel being written in a bad environment from the first of the novel. Steinbeck knew upon writing that readers tend to cling and fall for the caring, loving, and misunderstood bad guy trying to prove his innocence against all evil brought to him. So Steinbeck created Lennie to try and portray this character to his audience. Steinbeck had to be sure that all elements presented in the novel were able flow good and complete the recipe (Krutch 29-30).
In Of Mice and Men, the author attempts to portray the hardships that a man attempts to face yet fails to withstand. Set in the post-depression era, the book depicts the harsh truth of the
An Ethical Dilemma. People were terrified and disfranchised, John Steinbeck created Of Mice and Men, which set place during the dirty thirties (time of the Great Depression), a time where strength could not overcome aloneness and alienation. The child-like character Lennie was one of the most misunderstood characters, even with his best friend and caretaker George. In the beginning, they were uncanningly together in a society of loners during the time, having only each other, so close many assumed they were brothers. Throughout the story George had vowed to take care of Lennie, however under the circumstances he faced he chose to shoot his best friend.
When asked about John Steinbeck’s career, people often refer to Steinbeck as a playwright, journalist, and a well-known novelist. The book Of Mice and Men is a popular novel by John Steinbeck and a required read for most high school students. Most of Steinbeck 's novels have a central theme focusing on the relationship between man and his environment. The American dream for George and Lennie, two of the main characters in Of Mice and Men, is to have a place of their own, to be respected, and to work hard for everything they earn and deserve. In Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, the land and a hope of a better life becomes the talisman of an American dream for Lennie and George that is left unfulfilled.
The novel describes Lennie as “a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a beat drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely” (Steinbeck 2). Lennie is slow minded as well, but “strong as a bull.” George states in the novel, “He ain’t no cuckoo. He’s dumb as hell, but he ain’t crazy. An’ I ain’t so bright neither, or I wouldn’t be buckin’ barley for my fifty and found” (Steinbeck 37). Because Lennie is slow minded, he often gets impatient with individuals around him, which causes him to have a short fuse. He expresses his anger sometimes, but keeps composer at the same time. The reason Lennie has not been in more trouble than what he has already been in is because he is protected by innocence. One reason Lennie gets in trouble is because his obsession with soft things. For example, Lennie likes to “pet” mice, soft puppies and even hair on someone’s person. Curley’s wife ends up being killed by Lennie in chapter five because she underestimates his strength when she lets him “pet” her hair.
When lennie got in trouble in weed, he was holding on to a girls dress and she screamed which got him in trouble. As lennie quoted in document B, “Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress, Jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse. When he saw her dress he wanted to pet it, so when he went to go pet her dress he grabbed on when she started screaming and he wouldn’t let go, and then they sent people after george and lennie so they had to run away. Lennie has also killed the pup that was given to him by petting it too hard. Lennie said in document B, “ why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you to hard, you wasn’t big enough’. Lennie had killed the pup when he was just petting it, he didn’t want to kill it he was just patting it and since he is a gentle giant, he didn’t know he was patting it to hard. Lennie definetly made a clew, that he was going to kill curley’s wife, because in all the other events he got in trouble in he would end up doing a bad thing, just like in weed, and just like when he killed the
In Of Mice and Men, Lennie’s loss of innocence, which occurs in the form of his death (Steinbeck 106), impacts George both negatively and positively in ways that he loses his best friend, he loses hope on his dream, and he will have an easier life with no burden. A negative effect of George was that he loses his best friend. Lennie was all George had “because I [Lennie] got you [George] to look after me, and you got me to look after you …” (Steinbeck 14). The death of Lennie causes an impact on George in that he now has no one to be with. With Lennie gone, George is also unable to fulfill his dream of having his own ranch. Although George said that he never really believed that he would own a ranch, Lennie’s optimism gave him hope for a chance that it might come true (Steinbeck 94). Now that the optimism is gone, there is no reason for George to fulfill that dream. One of the positive effects that George has is that his life will be easier. Because Lennie had mental issues, George was always saving him from getting in trouble, such as when Lennie spoke to the boss when he wasn’t supposed to (Steinbeck 22). Even George said himself, “’If I was along I could live so easy … I could get a job an’ not have no mess.’” (Steinbeck 103). Along with an easier life, George will also have no burden. Lennie is always accidentally getting in trouble and George has to keep covering for him. George even says, “’Yeah, you forgot. You always forget, an’ I got to talk you out of it.’” (Steinbeck 23). With Lennie gone, George just has to fend for himself and, therefore, his life will be easier.
From the very beginning you see that Lennie is a very innocent person and sometimes doesn’t understand what is going on. There is a great example at the beginning of the story, George and Lennie are in the clearing before they go to the ranch and they’re making camp for the night. ”’tha’s good,' he said. 'you drink some George. You take a good big drink.’ he smiled happily”'(3). George has just yelled at him for drinking too fast, but he is too innocent to realize it. Lennie also showed innocence when he is told to jump into Sacramento River. “‘An’ he was so damn nice to me for pullin’ him out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in. Well, I ain’t done nothing
Lennie apologized to George for killing the mice; he told him that the reason for killing the mice was because “they bit my[Lennie’s] fingers” but he only “pinched their heads a little”(Steinbeck 10). Lennie’s guilt drives him to apologize about the mice but he appears to underestimate his own strength because he claimed that he vaguely pinched their heads, but Lennie being a vast man, that couldn't have been the case. He didn't know the consequences of pinching the mice even after he had done it so many times. This shows the lack of perception he holds, meaning he can't become cognizant of the things happening around him on his own, causing the reader to initiate sympathy for Lennie. Lennie’s immaturity is so big it can be misunderstood for cleverness. George sharply asks Lennie to give him the object from his pocket but he claims “ I ain't got nothin’”but later on admits he has a dead mouse but [George] insists to “ have it”,but George insisted to have the mouse then he “slowly obeyed”(Steinbeck 5-6). It appears as if Lennie was being clever but by handing the mice to George, his childish behavior is revealed. His ingenuous acts portray identically to a child influencing the reader to gain sensitivity to the way Lennie is treated. The way Lennie understands the world and process thoughts makes him mentally stable, for a child. Not only is he innocent but he is also ironically characterized.
Lennie relies on others to think for him. He won’t act or react unless he’s told to. When he’s getting punched in the face by Curley, Lennie doesn’t even flinch until George tells him to:
In the universe, there are many people who can be unfair to one another. The weak people are abused by the strong. Cruelty starts from childhood throughout adulthood. In the story “Of the Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck there are many weak characters that are abused by the strong. Lennie and Candy are mostly ‘picked on’ in the story. In the novella Steinbeck demonstrates that there are a lot of cruelty going on, such as when Lennie and Candy got abused because Lennie would always get harassed by Curley and Candy would always get mistreated by Carlson, because he takes advantage of shooting Candy’s dog.
When one thinks of innocence people often think of harmless, adorable, cuddly small things however innocence is not as simple or straightforward as it would seem. In Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men he uses the innocence of Lennie to show how people in general don’t mean to cause problems but often do.
1. In the novel of Of Mice and Men an example of a cruel being is Curley. He is a champion prizefighter who is the boss’s son in the story. Curley is a man who thinks he's a class above everybody else. He is an ill tempered man who goes around starting fights with men bigger than he. A good example for a kind fellow would be Lennie. Lennie is a big man who acts childish. He means no harm and he relies on George because of his disabilities. Man who is a mix of cruelties and kindness is George. George has a dream that is the same as Lennie’s dream which to have the farm of their dreams. He sometimes regrets having to put up with Lennie but at the same time he is devoted to him.
One of Lennie's many traits is his forgetfulness. He easily forgets what he is supposed to do, but he somehow never forgets what he is told. An example of how Lennie is forgetful is when he has the mice in his pocket and when he went to pet them they bit his finger. “Lennie picked up the dead mouse and looked at with a sad face. When they bit him he pinched them, and by doing that he crushed their heads” (page 5) . This is important because he knew that if he squeezed their heads they would die, but since he is forgetful, he squeezed anyway. Another example of how Lennie is forgetful is when he grabbed Curley's hand and crushed it. “ Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it. Lennie squeezed on until George came running in shouting ‘let go’. The next moment Curley was on the ground wailing while he held his crushed hand” (page 64). This event is important because Lennie had held on, not knowing what to do next, until George told him what to do. A final exampl...
Lennie has the mental capability of a 6 year old. This limits most every part of his life. Lennie's weaknesses make it difficult for him to have social contact outside of George. He misreads social cues which get him into trouble. He also doesn't know how to be fragile, as much as he loves to pet mice, he usually pets them too hard and kills them. He doesn't only pet mice to hard either. He ended up petting curley's wife so hard he broke her neck and killed her too. Him having this weakness of not being smart causes a lot of issues throughout the story. “He heard Lennie’s whimpering cry and wheeled about. “Blubberin’ like a baby! Jesus Christ! A big guy like you.” Lennie’s lip quivered and tears started in his eyes,” (Steinbeck 9). Having the words like whimpering and blubbering show how weak Lennie really is. Those words seem like they are meant for a baby, and not a big tough guy like Lennie. His mental capability is a big defining part in who he is which then means it's a big part of his weakness.