In John Steinbeck’s dynamic novel Of Mice and Men, the challenged Lennie’s harmless intentions results in heinous acts due to his decline in mentality and inability to control his own immense strength. In the beginning, Lennie’s simple love of soft things causes inconsequential incidents that quickly escalate into more severe offenses as the story progresses. By the end of the novel, Lennie’s uncontrollable strength and mental deficits leads him to commit unintended manslaughter. Stories of Lennie’s childhood show that from the beginning Lennie has enjoyed petting soft things but becomes hindered by his unmanageable physical power and child-like mind. George’s retelling of his and Lennie’s long ago past reveals Lennie’s Aunt Clara has given him soft things to stroke like a square of velvet and mice. Like most with metal disabilities, Lennie loves to touch soft things, but this is not a harmful obsession in itself. Only when combined …show more content…
While working in Weed, Lennie gets in trouble because he wants to feel a girl’s red dress. The scared girl screams and the confused and panicked Lennie does not know any better and holds on until George is able to knock enough sense into him to let go. After this event Lennie forgets what previously transpired and where he and George are going. Forgetfulness becomes another of Lennie’s known mental deficits. The next horrible act Lennie commits is caused by his fantasies of rabbits which lead to a fight between him and Curley that ends with Curley’s hand being completely crushed by Lennie’s out of control strength. Lennie cries “I didn’t wanta hurt him” (Steinbeck 64) and George says “Lennie was jus’ scairt...he didn’t know what to do” (Steinbeck 65). This proves that Lennie does not mean to harm people but due to his challenged mind and physical power it is
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Show MoreThe story begins, Lennie has a dead mouse in his pocket because of his fixation with touching soft things. but he doesn't understand his own strength. “ that mouse ain't fresh, Lennie; and besides, you've broke it pettin’ it.” ( Steinbeck page 9.)
Lennie had low brains and high strength, allowing him to get far with George helping him. But, Lennie never knowing when he did something wrong only put him on a clock before he would end up dying for something he didn’t understand. “They run us outta weed,”(Steinbeck 7) this quote shows that already at the beginning of the book Lennie has
Lennie is Autistic which makes it difficult for him to understand social communication and interaction. He also has poor self-awareness making him not know his own strength, because of that at the start he kills a mouse by petting it too hard, when the puppy bit him he smacked the dog too hard, and Curley's wife, Lennie went to touch hair because it was soft, but it frightened her causing Lennie to become scared when she started screaming. Even though Lennie didn’t know what he was doing and didn’t mean to do it, it would probably happen again putting Lennie and others in danger.
The problem with this is that Lennie is always getting in trouble because he loves petting soft things, but he would always end up hurting what he was petting or possible killing it. Lennie ends up killing a puppy that one of the ranch workers was going to let him have and he is scared George will be mad at him, when Curley’s wife, who is the wife of the ranch owner’s son, tries to comfort
The unconscious acts of Lennie in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck lead to terrible incidents. Steinbeck exemplifies in the book how even good people can act in violent ways. John Steinbeck uses Lennie’s action of killing Curley’s wife to communicate to the audience how he isn’t killing her with malicious intent, but how he is a good person who acted violently. Curley’s wife is intrigued by Lennie and his infatuation with petting soft things. She giggled at him realizing how he was on the strange side, even so he seems harmless, and with his intentions he is.
An innocent conversation between Lennie and Curley’s wife tragically results in her death. Lennie playing around with a small puppy and mice result in the puppy’s death and countless mice relates back to the concept of naturalism because Lennie cannot control his strength. His situations spin out of control, because he does not know what he is doing. George says that, “‘Lennie never done it out of meanness,’... All the time he done bad things, but he never done one of em’ mean” (Steinbeck 95).
George describes Lennie honestly, but it shows the cruel side of humanity by pointing out Lennie’s weaknesses and his inability to fix them. Steinbeck’s tone sets up a very honest and cruel world that man lives in Steinbeck’s use of
This trait of Lennie 's affects the story in a bad way because since he likes to pet things so much, he pets them too much that he kills them on accident. Lennie has done so much to ruin his world in the book. When Lennie gets to a new place to live, he accidently kills mice, a puppy, and a person, but says he 's sorry which makes him seem sympathetic. Steinbeck was successful at making Lennie sympathetic because he cares about everything and will always be there for George but other characters keep sizing up to him and he doesn’t know
This would not have made sense to the reader if Steinbeck had not included foreshadowing. In Of Mice and Men there are several events that show how much Lennie enjoys touching soft things. These events also show that he usually ends up hurting everything he pets
“Oh! Please don’t do that. George’ll be mad.” (Steinbeck 45). This part of the novel shows that Lennie never meant any harm he just wanted to pet something soft.
“Lennie never done it in meanness. All the time he done bad things, but he never done one of ‘em mean” (Steinbeck). This shows that Lennie does not mean to hurt people. This quote shows that he’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t realize his strength, his mental strength doesn’t compare to his physical strength. Even though Lennie didn’t mean any harm, he was going to have a painful death if Curley killed him.
He jus’ wanted to touch that red dress, like he wants to pet them pups all the time’” (Steinbeck 42). This quote is the first example in which Lennie’s mental disability gets in the way of his dreams. George tells Slim what had happened in Weed between Lennie and the woman in the red dress and how the whole situation started. “‘Sure, he 's [Lennie] jes like a kid.
This proves that Lennie is innocent and that Curley is the one who caused his own unfortunate incident in the bunkhouse. The quotation shows that George is even more to blame than Lennie is because George was the one that told him to do it, and that Lennie proclaimed that he did not want to hurt
After all the anger that George has shown towards Lennie, he utters these words now so Lennie can die with a sense of peace. George does not want to pull the trigger, but he knows that the further consequences of Lennie’s actions will only worsen. To save Lennie from Curley’s wrath, possible imprisonment, and perhaps years of suffering, George takes Lennie’s
Because of Lennie's mental disability, he is required to be dependent on George. In the beginning of the novel as George and Lennie are making their way to the migrant farm, Lennie has a dead mouse in his pocket. Lennie feels that if he were to tell George concerning the mouse, he would yell at Lennie and be angry with him for his wrong doing. Ultimately, the more times George gets furious or impatient with Lennie, Lennie believes that George will not allow his dream of owning a farm in the future to come true (Owens). Likewise, Lennie's lack of consciousness from determining right from wrong, denounces his self character, leading to his own death.