Examples Of Disabilities In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Nearly 1 in 5 people have a disability in the United States. In our society, people who have disabilities are looked at differently than those who do not. In the book Of Mice and Men, one can imagine the abuse one takes because of their differences. During the 1930’s in Salinas CA, There is a man named Lennie Small, but do not be fooled by his last name because he is a large man who is also very strong. Unfortunately, he suffered an accident which caused him to have a brain injury. This forever changed his life. People should never take advantage of another person when they have a disability. For one to live a fulfilled life, they need to treat all with equality and respect. Lennie experiences some abuse throughout the book through George, Curley’s wife, and Crooks. George is a great example of taking advantage of someone who has disabilities because of the fact that they do not know better. George abused Lennie’s inability of processing when he would tease Lennie. Knowing that Lennie could not defend himself, he would mentally beat him up. He did this all for personal entertainment reasons. Lennie not …show more content…

Crooks was using Lennie’s gullibleness to tease and taunt him by saying barbarous things that he knew would provoke him. “S’pose George don’t come back no more. S’pose he took a power and just ain’t coming back. (Steinbeck 71)” This reflects on how Crooks used all of his bottled up anger on Lennie. Crooks knows that Lennie is the kind of person who could sit there and take all of his outbursts. Crooks was harming Lennie on purpose for entertainment reasons plus the overall feeling of having power, which he felt like he did not have sense people disrespect him for being a person of color. Crooks used Lennie's disability for making himself feel better. He is without a doubt a perfect example of taking advantage of a person knowing they do not know better by reason of their

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