How Does Steinbeck Present The Impairments In Of Mice And Men

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Of Mice and Men ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck is a novel about two drifters, George and Lennie, who find work in California’s Salina Valley. Throughout the story, many characters struggle to get though life with their impairments. Characters such as Candy and Lenny suffer from physical impairments, others have mental impairments, while people like Crooks and Curly’s wife deal with social impairments. Physical impairments are shown through the novel. Characters with these impairments have trouble with doing work properly or doing simple tasks. Candy is shown as weak because he is an old man. Since he is weaker than others, he is seen as useless therefore is given easy tasks such as “settin’ out the wash basins” instead of hard labour like the other men. Lennie has trouble doing simple tasks because of his strength. He is unaware of how strong he is which means he often accidently kills animals while patting them as he “di’n’t know you’d get killed so easy.”, since he does not know how to be soft. Lennie’s unknown strength and mental capabilities means he gets into trouble a lot. This shows that physical impairments are shown negatively in the novel. …show more content…

The character that suffers the most is Lennie but George is also shown to have a bit of struggle. It is obvious that Lennie struggles with his mental impairments which cause him to get into trouble as he does not know right from wrong. He often forgets things, “I tried not to forget.” Because of his disability, he has a lot of trouble remembering important details which gets him in trouble with George. George also has issues because he “ain’t so bright” and did not go to school. This means he is unable to get a respectable job and he is forced to “be buckin’ barley”. Lennie and George show that mental impairments badly effects some

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