Critical Lens In 'Of Mice And Men'

Natalia Katsiashvili

Iris J. Crankfield

Honors English 9 4A

23 January 2023

Of Mice And Men Critical Lens Essay

Of Mice and Men, a novella by John Steinbeck uses disability as a catalyst so the readers can understand the importance of Ableism during the 1930s. George Milton and Lennie Small, two migrant workers who travel from place to place in California in hopes to find a new job to survive. It’s hard for them to find a job as Lennie is mentally disabled which causes some roadblocks in the process. This story was written during the Great Depression in the 1930's. During this time The United States Of America was in a global economic and political crisis.

John Steinbeck drives the story by using disability to show how people were treated

George even lies that he and Lennie were cousins so The Boss wouldn’t suspect anything showing that George is ashamed of Lennie but also cares about him. George tries many ways to cope with Lennie’s mind, strategies such as making Lennie repeat what he said and punish him by reminding Lennie what his dream is and how George can ruin that dream for him. Unfortunately none of these strategies successfully ‘fixed’ Lennie but instead made him scared and traumatized by George. By using little events where George stands up for Lennie, Steinbeck drives the story to be more suspenseful because readers become aware that George will do whatever it takes to protect Lennie, building up tension and question of what else will George do and how far will he go to keep Lennie

George gets angry about Lennie's actions and isolates him from the ranch members. Even though Lennie wasn’t doing anything by purpose he was still getting punished and isolated which makes him have a desire for affection. Lennie copes with his desires by petting an animal which at that time of the story was a little puppy in the barn. Regrettably he accidentally kills the little puppy which sends his brain into panic mode and tries to cover up his mistake by hiding the little puppy instead of telling George like he used to. Lennie knew he would get in a lot of trouble that's why he hid the puppy. Some time later Curley’s wife comes into the barn to chat as she was also isolated from man. Curley’s wife lets Lennie pet her hair. As Lennie desired affection he stroked Curley’s wife's hair over and over again when she got mad and started crying out for help which caused Lennie to panic; “Oh! Please don’t do none of that,” he begged. “George gonna say I done a bad thing. He ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits.” … “I don’t want you to yell.” (Steinbeck 91) Curley’s wife struggled and struggled while Lennie's strength became more powerful to keep Curley’s wife quiet, alas killing her. After realizing what he’d done he ran away from the ranch and hid in a bush by a lake. After everyone found out that Curley’s wife had passed away everyone grew as