Mental Illness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

790 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Of mice and men mental disability

Margaret Larson, who is most notable for her position with NBC News, mentioned “Mental illness is an equal-opportunity illness. Every one of us is impacted by mental illness. One in five adults are dealing with this illness, and many are not seeking help because the stigma prevents that.” Many nonprofit organizations were established to ensure that people with any mental disabilities are receiving the proper attention needed. A major human rights issue in John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” should not be overlooked. Lennie’s life is negatively impacted, due to not receiving the proper mental health care. It is sad to say but this illness does exist in our life today, not just in fiction. Mental illness was a main human rights issue in the novel Of Mice and Men. “Now, look—I'll give him the work tickets, but you ain't gonna say a word. You jus' stand there and don't say nothing. If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won't get no job, but if he sees ya work before …show more content…

The study said mental health problems were “widespread, at times disabling, yet often hidden.” This is due to the under-funding for these types of health services in the United Kingdom. "Mental health services have been underfunded for decades and too many people have received no help at all, leading to hundreds of thousands of lives put on hold or ruined," wrote task force chairman Paul Farmer, the chief executive of mental health charity Mind. This study also showed that only one in four adults receives a diagnosis of their mental illness in any given year. Mental health represents “the largest single cause of disability in the UK.” Sad to say in this system, “most children and younger ones actually receive no support at all, and even those that do, the average wait for an appointment was 32 weeks” in the year of

Show More
Related

  • How Does Steinbeck Present The Complex Character In Of Mice And Men

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    A man often judges himself by his size. If he is not as tall or muscular as the next man, he may feel inferior to him. This may result in that man developing a “little man” syndrome or Napoleon Complex. In the novel Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck displays this inferiority complex through the character Curley. Because Curley feels inadequate due to his short stature, he tends to dislike those bigger than him, challenges most everyone, and is not remorseful for his negative actions or for what happens to others.

    Read More

  • Emotionally and Physically Crippled Characters in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emotionally and Physically Crippled Characters in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men Works Cited Missing "Of Mice and Men is a novel in which the majority of the characters are crippled, whether physically, socially or emotionally" is a very astute statement. Many of the characters in the novel suffer due to the time period the novel was set in. The 1930's were a terribly lonely time for the itinerant, ranch workers, ranch wives and Afro-Americans. Their lonely lives left them emotionally crippled, for they didn't have much company. This was because they had been alone for so long that they had chose to live isolated from other people.

    Read More

  • Themes in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.

    Read More

  • Human Experience In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Steinbeck explores human experience in the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ in friendship, loneliness and marginalisation. He does this through the characters as explained thought the paragraphs below.

    Read More

  • The Vulnerability of Innocent Characters in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Mental Illnesses In The 1800's

    269 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the 1800’s people with mental illnesses were frowned upon and weren't treated like human beings. Mental illnesses were claimed to be “demonic possessions” people with mental illnesses were thrown into jail cells, chained to their beds,used for entertainment and even killed. Some were even slaves, they were starved and forced to work in cold or extremely hot weather with chains on their feet. Until 1851, the first state mental hospital was built and there was only one physician on staff responsible for the medical, moral and physical treatment of each inmate. Who had said "Violent hands shall never be laid on a patient, under any provocation.

    Read More

  • The Treatment and Lives of the Mentally Handicapped During the Great Depression

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Great Depression was a worldwide economic slump of the 1930’s” (Fetzer; p.338). The Great Depression caused a catastrophic amount of grief and distress for the citizens of the United States. Some of these citizens, however, faced more problems which caused grief and distress than others. Among those citizens were the mentally ill. During the era of the Great Depression, the mentally handicapped were treated unfairly in almost every aspect of their lives; this included how society treated them, how they were treated medically, and even how their personal lives were affected.

    Read More

  • Social Misfits In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    and has no family and the only old man on the ranch. We are told him

    Read More

  • Analysis Of John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    2021 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Mental Health Funding

    1643 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mental Health Funding Mental health is a subject a lot of people prefer not to talk about, which is a main reason that it is so underfunded. The severe underfunding affects not only the people suffering from mental illness, but also the government, the economy, and society as a whole. It is in the government's best interest to put more funding into mental health due to the health consequences on patients, including weight issues, drastic effects on bodily functions, and difficulties in pregnancy. As well as this

    Read More

  • Girl Interrupted And American Horror Story: Insane Asylum

    1971 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mental illness has been around as long as people have been. However, the movement really started in the 19th century during industrialization. The Western countries saw an immense increase in the number and size of insane asylums, during what was known as “the great confinement” or the “asylum era” (Torrey, Stieber, Ezekiel, Wolfe, Sharfstein, Noble, Flynn Criminalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill). Laws were starting to be made to pressure authorities to face the people who were deemed insane by family members and hospital administrators. Because of the overpopulation in the institutions, treatment became more impersonal and had a complex mix of mental and social-economic problems. During this time the term “psychiatry” was identified as the medical specialty for the people who had the job as asylum superintendents. These superintendents assumed managerial roles in asylums for people who were considered “alienated” from society; people with less serious conditions wer...

    Read More

  • Media Portrayal of Mental Illness in America

    3886 Words  | 8 Pages

    Mental illness is more common than one would like to believe. In reality, one in five Americans will suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. Though that ratio is about equivalent to more than fifty-four million people, mental illness still remains a shameful and stigmatized topic (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). The taboo of mental illness has an extensive and exhausting history, dating back to the beginning of American colonization. It has not been an easy road, to say the least.

    Read More

  • History and Overview of Insane Asylums

    1763 Words  | 4 Pages

    For many decades the mentally ill or insane have been hated, shunned, and discriminated against by the world. They have been thrown into cruel facilities, said to help cure their mental illnesses, where they were tortured, treated unfairly, and given belittling names such as retards, insane, demons, and psychos. However, reformers such as Dorothea Dix thought differently of these people and sought to help them instead. She saw the inhumanity in these facilities known as insane asylums or mental institutions, and showed the world the evil that wandered inside these asylums. Although movements have been made to improve conditions in insane asylums, and were said to help and treat the mentally ill, these brutally abusive places were full of disease and disorder, and were more like concentration camps similar to those in Europe during WWII than hospitals.

    Read More

  • The Quiet Room Analysis

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    Disabilities of mental health are common, but not many people are talking about them. As strong stigma is attached to them, and mishandled representation only furthers the stigma. Lori Schiller pushed through the silence to present a narrative that shows the complex ways in which a mental illness can affect someone and those around

    Read More

  • Human Suffering in Of Mice and Men Steinbeck Of Mice and Men Essays

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    George suffers in several different way. Since he promised Lennie's grandmother he would take of Lennie and watch over him always George is forced to put up with Lennie's stupidity, like the time when he grabbed a lady's velvet dress in Weed and caused George to lose his job on that ranch. Or the time when Lennie seized up and choked Curly's wife in a panic she would scream, causing her to die and causing George and him to lose that job as well. Lennie made some terrible mistakes and George suffered for each one of them, whether it be having to leave town, or frantically running for his life, George has suffered due to Lennie's bad decisions. If George didn't make a promise to Lennie's grandmother to watch over Lennie he would be able to do what he wants and be more care free due to the fact that he would have more money by himself rather than sharing it with Lennie, whether it'd be buying a prostitute or drinking himself blind, or doing them both at the same time, George would be able to do it if he didn't have to watch over Lennie.

    Read More

More about Mental Illness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Open Document