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An essay on character development
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An essay on character development
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The book Of Mice and Men is written by John Steinbeck. In the book the two main characters George and Lennie go from farm to farm looking for work. Their most recent job has them living in a bunkhouse with other men working on the farm. Through thick and thin George and Lennie have stayed together, but things change once Lennie makes a mistake that can’t be made up for. Throughout the story Lennie is portrayed as an immature, ignorant person yet a devoted friend to George which makes it easy to feel sympathy for him. Lennie is shown to be an ignorant and unintelligent person through his actions and the way he speaks. In the book Lennie is put into many situations that require knowledge and an understanding that Lennie hasn’t caught onto yet. “ “Lennie” He said sharply. “Lenny, for god’ sakes don't drink so much.” Lennie continued to snort into the pool. The small man leaned over and shook him by the shoulder. “Lennis. You gonna be sick like you was last night.” Like shown in the above quote from Of Mice and Men characters such as George disagree with Lennie's decisions and feel the …show more content…
Since Lenny relies on George so much he's never had practice at sticking up for himself and he doesn't know how to handle many situations. Lennie's strong appearance is the only thing that keeps him from being targeted by many characters, although some people don’t find him very threatening. “Lennie looked helplessly at George, and then he got up and tried to retreat. Curley was balanced and poised. He slashed at Lennie with his left, and then smashed down his nose with a right.” By hurting Lennie, his trait adds more conflict to the plot of the story. More arguments/fights break out as a result of Lennie being the vulnerable person that he is. Each one of Lennie's traits strengthens his relationship with George but causes problems that affect his relationship with other
Lennie is broken and incomplete in many ways. He has a mental disability which differentiates him from the others. He depends on George for everything and cannot do things on his own even though he is a grown man.
Lennie has always been told what to do by George. George really helps him through problems that keep happening during the book. Lennie is incapable to live because he does not know his strength and George has to play the role as a living assistant for Lennie. Lennie does not mean to harm but because of his condition he essentially harms people. In the book it explains the
Lennie comes across as a powerful man to us in this book, yet is this
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
John Steinbeck wrote a story about two men that only had each to depend on. Many of George and Lennie's struggles come from things they cannot control such as Lennie's mental issues. George and Lennie are very poor and they work on farms together, but they have to move a lot because Lennie always does something stupid. The greatest tragedy in Mice and Men was when Lennie was left alone with Curley's wife. She was the reason why Lennie ended up being killed. She knew of to manipulate others to get her way and that is what she relies on most of the time.
In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck portrays Lennie as an innocent man with childish tendencies. However, Lennie shows some streaks of violence at certain points in the novel. Despite Lennie’s innocence, he can also be violent. Many of his violent behaviour stems from his ignorance of his own strength, leading to many mice, a puppy, and even a human being dead. Lennie’s mental disability makes him very childish and quite innocent.
In the story, it is easy to tell Lennie has the mind of very small child. Lennie loves animals like most children. Lennie is also forgetful like a child and cannot be trusted to hold on to his own things. On page 4 and 5, Lennie forgot where he was going. When he forgot his papers, George had to hold on to them. Lennie barely knows right from wrong, like a child. On page 9. he has a dead mouse and keeps it. He doesn’t know it is weird or wrong to keep dead things. It is clear Lennie’s intelligence is about the same as a very young child.
Lennie, like a mouse, is helpless. Lennie relies on George to think for him like mice rely on scraps of food from the dinner table to eat.
The character of Lennie is introduced in the very beginning of the story along with the setting and also Lennie’s friend/caretaker, George. Lennie could be considered a “gentle giant”, but he suffers from some mental impairments which get the duo into some trouble. In the first chapter of the book, George begins to explain his feelings of anger and frustration towards their situation of looking for employment. He begins showing discrimination to Lennie by saying that he was the source of all of their problems. “You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get… You crazy son-of-a-bitch. You keep me in hot water all the time.” (Steinbeck 11) George also explains how much easier his life would be if he did not have to look after Lennie. “God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble.” (11) This, of course, hurts Lennie’s feelings, and the reader can tell this because Steinbeck goes on to write that Lennie’s face had an “anguished” (11) look to it. Later, Lennie asks, “George, you want I should go away and leave you alone?” Although, Lennie’s poor memory makes him forget about George’s hateful co...
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.
Lennie was not very smart and couldn't do much by himself. He had to be told what to do or he wouldn't do anything at all. He fits all the profiles for a retarded person. He doesn't have any self-control. When he starts to panic he gets out of control and even kills Curly's wife because she starts to scream. Lennie loves animals and can't stop talking about them. He always says that when they get their own place that he wants lots of rabbits, his favorite animal. To him George is like his father figure, since Lennie never really had any parents. He is easily amused and panics quickly.
Lennie is always the source of this anger, whether it be toward him, because of him, or from him. One of the first characters to portray anger in John Steinbeck’s Novel is George, Lennies companion. Straight away in the Novel, anger is shown towards Lennie, Georges anger is because Lennie wants something they do not have, and because it is Lennie who is ‘pleading,’ George is Expected to have it. This is only due to Lennies innocence. George tells him, "Well we aint got no ketchup!" his anger is clearly out of frustration, as he goes on to talk about how he could do "Whatever the hell" he liked if Lennie wasn't around. "I could get my 50 bucks at the end of the month and go sit in a cat house and enjoy myself, but no, I'm stuck with you". George is almost saying that Lennie is a burden to him and that if Lennie were to leave George alone, then George would have a more relaxed life. All of this anger that George is giving to Lennie is because George is frustrated at not being able to further his life in a way in which he wants to.
George and Lennie have known each other since they were young, but George hasn’t always been trying to look out for Lennie. Because Lennie would always listen to what he said, George often took advantage of him, almost resulting in his death by drowning. This shows how humans can and will control others simply because they have the upper hand. Mental Disabilities can put people in vulnerable situations, and not all people will respect and protect them. Eventually George sees the error in his ways and becomes Lennie’s somewhat reluctant protector. Lennie wants nothing more than to please George. In Of Mice and Men it says, “George lifted his tick and looked underneath it…Immediately Lennie got up and did the same with his bed (Steinbeck 19).” Lennie wants to surpass George’s expectations and does his best to comply with whatever George wants him to do. This is a very common characteristic in children who want to please their parents. This becomes less apparent as children grow up, but in Lennie’s case it stays a common
Steinbeck makes is obvious from the first moment that Lennie is mentally retarded. Many times he is referred to as animal like and having animal like features. He is like a big baby, he is huge and clearly very strong but he has the mind of a small child. Lennie's personality and life seem based on three things: soft things, devotion to George and his dream of one day owning a farm. It is quite sad and Steinbeck makes you feel really sorry for him be exaggerating his simplicity and his innocence. Lennie is absent-minded for a good portion of the novel. He is unaware of what he's doing sometimes until he has done it. For example, he enjoyed to pet soft objects. But we find out that while living in Weed, he decided to ’pet’ a woman’s dress but she thought that he was raping her so she screamed and he almost got himself killed. He is greatly forgetful and needs a lot of looking after otherwise he would never be able so survive and quite often this can come between his relationship with George.
We first read about Lennie's strength in the opening scene, when Lennie accidentally kills the pet mouse in his pocket by petting it too hard. We also learn that, in fact, Lennie has killed other pets in the same manner in the past. Lennie's strength is also mentioned when the two men search for jobs. In fact, it seems that Lennie's physical characteristics (size and power) serve as somewhat of an advantage when the two men come to the farm. Specifically, in George's dialogue with the boss on the farm, George points out Lennie's ability.