How Is Lennie Presented in the Novel "Of Mice and Men"

After Lennie has inadvertently murdered Curley’s wife, Curley’s lynch mob go out in search of Lennie. George’s decision is almost inevitable to spare Lennie’s life, rather than let Curley and his gang destroy the bit of life Lennie has.

Lennie is attached to George because he needs him to survive but George also has an attachment to Lennie because he is terrified of living without him since he had always never had to focus on anyone else when he was with Lennie because of how consuming Lennie was therefore George will stick with Lennie through everything in life for a sense of security. Lennie and George were inseparable, and anyone from an outside perspective could see that. When George and Lennie first interview with the new boss, we can see George's protectiveness over Lennie as he answers all of the questions for him. On page 21, every time the boss tries to talk to Lennie, George answers for him. The boss says “You too” to Lennie while asking him about his previous work at Weed.

Lennie loves to pet soft objects, and he’s obsessed with mice and rabbits because he loves how nice their fur feels. Every time he pets things he likes, he always gets himself into trouble. In the very beginning of the book, George and Lennie have to run away from a town. They need to escape because a woman accuses Lennie of raping her but all he did was pet her soft dress. When the women started screaming Lennie got afraid and held on. Lennie doesn't understand right from wrong when it comes to situations like this.. “Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress-jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse.”(Doc B) This dialogue from Lennie shows how he can’t control himself. Later in the book Lennie gets a puppy that he can pet without harming it. Lennie ends up petting it too hard and kills the puppy. “I di’n’t know you’d get killed so easy.” (Doc B) This quote shows how Lennie didn’t mean to harm the puppy. When Curley's wife talks with Lennie and tells him he can pet her hair, things don’t turn out well. While lennie pets Curley's wife's hair, she yells many times “Let go!” This startles Lennie and he ends up snapping her neck by accident. John Steinbeck foreshadows Curley's Wife's death by showing how when Lennie pets soft things, he gets in trouble or ends up killing what he’s

In the Salinas River Valley, after the Great Depression, there were a large number of unemployed workers seeking jobs. In the fiction novel "Of Mice and Men," by John Steinbeck, Lennie Small is among one of those men. Lennie and his friend George both have just received jobs on a ranch as farm workers. What brings the two together is their dream to someday own their own land. Lennie has a lot of character and personality traits that define him. One trait that he has is he is very forgetful. Another trait he has is he is very curious. A final trait he has is that he is very reliant. Although he might not be the intelligent person in the book, he has a very well developed personality. Lennie demonstrates his personality and character

Lennie is an innocent, unknowing of what's going on around him type of person. All he really knows is that he likes things that feel soft and that is what ends up getting him kill. He is so focused on not having George mad at him and not letting him tend to the rabbits that he accidentally kills Curley's wife. “"Don't you go yellin'," he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.”(xx) Lennie just killed Curley's wife and he has done a lot of bad things but never murdered someone. This is the last straw for George and when he hunts him down in the woods, he kills Lennie because he is at a loss of hope for Lennie. Lennie has a tendency to kill small animals by accident and

After Lennie killed Curley’s wife, Curley and a mob went after Lennie to “shoot him in the guts,”(Steinbeck) which would have been a excruciating and slow death. George also realizes Lennie would be lonely in jail and without a friend where they would “strap him down and put him in a cage.” (Steinbeck) By mercifully killing his friend, George shows that his decision to give

In John Steinbeck’s work, Of Mice and Men, Lennie is compared to an animal multiple times which degrades from his sense of humanity and leads to a greater gap between George and himself causing Lennie to become almost nothing to the reader, and to the other characters in the story as well. While George has sharp figures and is precisely described, Lennie is shown as more animalistic, and not really given a lot of traits and characteristics. Also, the other people in the ranch/farm approach Lennie with fear and caution.

Lennie small is a large strong, and un intelligent man. He rarely thinks for himself and can’t hold his own. He does not understand Who you can laugh at or when you can laugh which makes him not have any social awareness. Lennie also never learns throughout the course of this story. He never learns to stay away from some people. For All these reasons we are sympathetic for him.

Everyone has had a caretaker or guardian to protect and care for them at some period in time. Developing into an adult is often times when a person becomes able to live independently. However, this is not the case for Lennie Small from the story, “Of Mice and Men” as a result of his disability. Being dependant on other people, Lennie needs a caretaker because of the lack of family to protect him. Someone without family relation, George, rises to the position as his caretaker in the harsh, unforgiving circumstances they have at the moment. Dreaming of a better future, George has to carry Lennie from job to job in order to eventually collect enough money to finally claim their land as their own. George has good, honest intentions for Lennie and only strives to give him the best conditions even if it meant he had to pull the trigger against him.

Even George, who acted as Lennie’s protector in the novel, lost his temper and lashed out at Lennie in certain situations. "Blubberin’ like a baby! Jesus Christ! A big guy like you!" Lennie’s lip quivered and tears started in his eyes” (9). In this situation, George failed to realize that Lennie’s mental state was not quite stable, and that the best way to deal with him is to be kind and gentle. However, other characters treated Lennie far worse than George did. Curley was persistently trying to pick a fight with Lennie, not realizing that Lennie did not understand the concept of fighting, and even when provoked would fail to fight back. When Lennie kills Curley’s wife, Curley fails to realize that Lennie committed this horrific crime unintentionally, and instead is blinded with rage. “I’ll kill the big son-of-a-bitch myself. I’ll shoot ‘im in the guts” (96). Curley is too bent on revenge to discern that Lennie’s murderous act may have been unintentional, and is therefore not taking Lennie’s mental instability into

Finally, John Steinbeck shows off the bullying and meanness as intentional and contrasts it to Lennie’s unintentional meanness, such as when he hurts the puppy (pg 85), the mouse (pg 5), and kills Curley’s wife (pg 91). When Curley wants to fight it is intentional and violent. George explains Lennie’s violence when he says that Lennie "never done it in meanness" (pg 104). Lennie kills because he does not know his own strength – he cuddles or loves to hard. Also, he panics and reacts without thought, such as when he pulled the woman’s dress. (pg 41) Also, showing a contrast in motive is that Lennie is so upset by what he has done, especially to Curley’s wife. He is the only one who shows real remorse.

George also warns Lennie to not be near Curley’s wife, as he senses trouble between the two. Nevertheless, at the conclusion of the book, Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife after trying to calm her down (as she was screaming for help because Small would not let go of her soft hair). Overall, Lennie’s outstanding physical strength combined with his lack of intelligence and moral sense makes him dangerous without George monitoring him constantly.

In my opinion, Lennie Small is the most interesting character in Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck does a very good job describing and characterizing Lennie's personality. Lennie's character is, indeed, quite unique. A large man with enormous strength, yet kind and childlike, he seems to find joy in simple life pleasures like petting a furry animal and making the water ripple. Lennie's greatest difficulty seems to be remembering; and it is the lack of the ability to remember that ultimately leads to his tragedy at the end of the book. In the novel, Steinbeck seems to reinforce Lennie's characteristics of strength, kindness, childlike manner, and somewhat animal-like personality.

Curley’s Wife’s mistake in allowing Lennie to stroke her hair even though warnings were given about her from George to Lennie foreshadows her own death. "Don 't you even take a look at that b*tch. I don 't care what she says and what she does... You leave her be." (Steinbeck 16). This is another example of foreshadowing because Lennie couldn’t keep his hands off of things in the past and tells the reader that he might do something bad to her in the future. George is attempting to keep Lennie away from Curley’s Wife because he is aware of the possible consequences of their interaction, especially as Curley is the ranch boss’ son. Lennie 's accidental killing of Curley 's wife was the situation that George had been dreading from when they met her on the ranch. “She took Lennie 's hand and put it on her head. "Feel right aroun ' there an ' see how soft it is." Lennie 's big fingers fell to stroking her hair.” (Steinbeck 54). Lennie can 't keep his hands off of soft things and covers Curley’s Wife’s mouth when she yells for him to let go of her hair, strangling her by unawareness of his own strength. George

But Lennie, perfecting his craft one incident at a time, messes everything up. Lennie’s biggest fear was not being able to tend the rabbits when they get their own land, and he loved those rabbits. Lennie grieving over killing his puppy starts conversing with Curley’s wife, a decision he should have never made. Lennie got caught in an unbelievable predicament with Curley’s wife, he was holding her mouth shut while pulling her hair, getting angry at her tell her to shut up, because he does not want to get in trouble. Because, if he did he would not be able to tend the rabbits. As she continued to scream, louder and louder as seconds went by, Lennie with his harmless intentions did not know what to do, so he shook her to get her to shut up but unintentionally broke her neck (Steinbeck, 91). Lennie knowing what to do if he ever did something bad, escapes to the hideout that only him and George know about. Eventually, everybody finds out about Curley’s wife when Candy found her dead body in the barn. At this moment, George knew he had two decisions that would change his life forever. He would either side with his new friends and find Lennie, or escape with Lennie and find another place to work. George makes the right decision and sides with his friends, but he knew they wanted Lennie dead, so he decided to do it himself. George met up with Lennie at their hideout and told him to look the other way and envision everything good about the farm, not wanting to harm Lennie he made sure he was as happy as he could be at that very moment. As George started to describe the farm to him, he put the gun to the back of his neck and pulled the