Self Control In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

1063 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Of mice and men lennie character traits

Self Control Not Included: The Self Control in Of Mice and Men In the novella Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck, one of the most important themes is how the lack of self-control can have unfortunate consequences. George and Lennie, two best friends, are striding to salvage enough money to buy themselves a farm in the middle of nowhere with rabbits, dogs, and chickens. George, a man who was burdened with taking care of a man-child, is Lennie 's brother but in a way his primary caretaker. He has to stop Lennie from doing simpleminded actions for Lennie does not know the power of his own strength. Every Time they get a job and try to settle down, Lennie messes up, and they have to move on to the next town. Lennie has no self control whatsoever. He …show more content…

This started when Lennie saw a girl in a fine-looking dress. Since Lennie is mentally handicapped, he cannot control himself from grabbing on to her dress. When George was talking to Slim, he explained what happened. He said, “He just scared her. I 'd be scared too, if he grabbed me. But he never hurt her. He just ' wanted to touch that red dress, like he wants to pet them pups all the time." (42). This girl proclaimed that Lennie raped her but he actually just grabbed on to her red dress and did not release. This is a representation of Lennie 's lack of self control because he could not stop himself from going over to the girl and touching the dress. As the poor girl squeaked and struggled Lennie just kept holding on. He did not understand what was going on or why she was screaming. This made him angry and caused him to hold on stronger. If George had not been there to pull Lennie away from the girl, he would of hurt her or possibly even killed …show more content…

Lennie cannot be held fully responsible for this incident. Curly was the one who started beating the daylights out of him in the first place. When you get in a fight with a big guy like Lennie you win either way. If you win everyone will praise you and if you lose they will feel sorry for you. Curly started picking on Lennie in the first place because he was laughing when Candy said, “Hand full of vaseline,”(62) in a disgusted manner. Because Curly had an ill-tempered personality, he would be enraged quickly. His eyes flew right past Candy and onto Lennie, the one person in the room he could win against. Curly bluntly asked Lennie what was so funny and started an argument. Before you know it, Curly was beating the daylights out of Lennie. When Lennie cried out for George’s help, he yelled, “Get him Lennie. Don’t let him do it,” (62). George was encouraging Lennie to stand up for himself and that is exactly what he did. Lennie latched on to Curley 's fist and would not release. George kept on encouraging Lennie to hold on. When it had gone too far, the men tried to get Lennie to release Curley 's fist, but he would not bother. George slapped him in the face again and again until he finally saw Curly’s white and shrunken face that he let

Show More
Related

  • Loyalty and Protection in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

    762 Words  | 2 Pages

    town they were heading to, he must come back to the pond and hide in

    Read More

  • Decisions In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    As we journey through life, we must make difficult decisions, even when few options exist and the situation is grim. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the decision George faces after Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife is complicated, as none of his choices are good. The importance of his relationship with Lennie forces George to look at the big picture and act in Lennie’s best interests, even though the action he must finally take will result in a weight that he will carry forever.

    Read More

  • Why Is Lennie Wrong

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    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 trouble in weed and George explains “Well he saw a girl in a red dress and a red dress and he just wanted to feel it and when he touched it the girl just starts yelling and all he can think to do is hold on” ( Steinbeck 41). The quote states or explains how Lennie can scare or harm people.

    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

    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...

    Read More

  • Loyalty and Sacrifice in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Steinbeck was born in 1902, in California's Salinas Valley, a region that would eventually serve as the setting for Of Mice and Men, as well as many of his other works. He studied literature and writing at Stanford University. He then moved to New York City and worked as a laborer and journalist for five years, until he completed his first novel in 1929, Cup of Gold. With the publication of Tortilla Flat in 1935, Steinbeck achieved fame and became a popular author.  He wrote many novels about the California laboring class.  Two of his more famous novels included Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.  Steinbeck got the title for Of Mice and Men from a line of Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry."  In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck includes the theme of loyalty and sacrifice between friends.  Steinbeck illustrates the loyalty and sacrifice between friends through the friendship of Lennie and George.

    Read More

  • Lennie's Mistakes In Of Mice And Men

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    Following the beginning, Lennie is seen as a bit on the softer side contrary to George who was a heavy-tempered individual. We later find out that Lennie has a mental illness implied by language, communication and actions towards George and others. Demonstration of his illness was implied by: "I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead—because they was so little. I wish’t we’d get the rabbits pretty soon, George. They ain’t so little." (Steinbeck 4). Lennie’s childish personality and mistakes in the novel somewhat foreshadowed future events. George told Slim about the incident in Weed: “Well he seen this girl in a red dress...he just wants to touch everything he likes” (Steinbeck 41). George harshly remarked that his mistakes could get him in serious trouble, which was a vital, empowering statement within the novel that hinted at a dark

    Read More

  • The Sake Of The Future In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    “‘…That was your own Aunt Clara. An’ she stopped givin’ ‘em to ya. You always killed ‘em.’” (Page 9, Paragraph 7) George also knows that there is nothing he can do for Lennie’s mental and physical state. After they learn about Curley’s wife and meet her, George warns Lennie to stay away from her: “‘Well, you keep away from her, ‘cause she’s a rattrap if I ever seen one. Glove fulla Vaseline,’ George said disgustedly.” (Page 32, Paragraph 11) George is probably worried that Lennie might want to touch her and be accused of rape again. However, George is aghast when he sees Curley’s wife dead on the ground. He knows that Lennie did not mean to kill her, but he also knows that accidentally killing a human is still an unforgivable crime. George probably thinks of Lennie as a danger to him, to his future ranch, and to other humans as

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Dreams In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    543 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lennie himself had problems such as mental illness which he suffered from causing him to do bad deeds. First in the beginning, George and Lennie was trying to escape weed because, Lennie killed a women from their. Lennie holds small and fragile things in his hand, and does not understand how weak and frail they are, which ends up hurting or killing them.”I like to put things with my fingers, sof’ things”(90). He doesn't have any understanding when he is hurting something when he squeezes it because, he is mentally challenged. The last thing that shows this is he killed Curley's wife as well around the end of the novel.

    Read More

  • Themes of Loyalty and Devotion in “Of Mice and Men”

    807 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout “Of Mice and Men”, Steinbeck shows gripping examples of the devotion of Lennie towards George, and the loyalty of George towards Lennie. George serves as Lennie’s “guardian angel”, stays with Lennie in difficult situations, and eventually his devotion to their friendship leads George to make the ultimate sacrifice and kill his best friend as a “mercy killing” instead of letting the mob take Lennie’s life.

    Read More

  • George and Lennie in the First Three Chapters of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

    1397 Words  | 3 Pages

    In chapter one, George and Lennie are introduced onto the scene and you get to know them a little bit and you get to see how they are related/ their relationship. When I read this first part, I could tell that George was pretty much Lennie’s caretaker and it was his job to find Lennie a job and make sure he ate enough and stayed a live. He kind of resented having to drag Lennie around (pg 11~12: “Well we ain’t got any!” George exploded. “Whatever we ain’t got, you want. If I was alone I could live so easy… But wadda I got? I got you. You can’t keep a job and you loose me every job I get.”), because Lennie’s a bit slow and he messes up a lot. He tries really hard to be good and listen to what George tells him to do, but in the end of every situation, Lennie forgets what George told him beforehand and sometimes it creates a little trouble (pg 45~46: “Well, he seen this girl in this red dress. Dumb like he is, he likes to touch ever’thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do. Well, this girl just squawks and squawks. I was jus’ a little bit off, and I heard all the yellin’, so I comes running, an’ by that time Lennie’s so scared all he can think to do is jus’ hold on. I socked him over the head with a fence picket to make him let go. He was so scairt he couldn’t let go of the dress. And he’s so strong, you know… Well, that girl rabbits in an’ tells the law she’s been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie. So we sit in an irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day.”). But when you look at them, you can tell that George is...

    Read More

  • Lennie's Struggles In Of Mice And Men

    343 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Persistence In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    381 Words  | 1 Pages

    Steinbeck uses the text Of Mice And Men to emphasise the importance of persistence in situations of struggle, however the main message sent forth by Steinbeck is mainly showing how persistence affects opinions and actions that span over time which is shown many times in the text. Such as when George and Lennie are conversing at the green lake on their way to the ranch and George begins to explain their dream which results in “... Lennie’s face broke into a delighted smile” (5). This shows how Persistence and adaptation can affect situations, because if George was made unable to adapt or remain persistent the conversation would have kept a more intense or serious tone instead of changing into a upbeat or happy conversation which results in Lennie

    Read More

  • Steinbeck’s quest for friendship, dreams, and personality in Of Mice and Men

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    They tell her to leave them and also to leave Lennie alone, because they know that Lennie cannot defend himself (80). When George and Candy find out what Lennie has done to Curly’s wife, they do not want to say anything about it. Candy tells George, that Curly will kill Lennie. But George will not let anyone hurt Lennie (95). Lennie trusts in George, and believes everything that he is telling him.

    Read More

  • Character Traits of Lennie in Of Mice and Men

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

More about Self Control In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Open Document