The Entity Of Sadness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Lennie’s character in the book can represent the child or the fool in the story. All throughout the story he shows signs of resembling a child. He throws tantrums, whines, and complains about things just like a child would. For example, when Lennie tries to sneak the puppy into the bunkhouse and George takes it from

George and Lennie are walking through the woods when George notices that Lennie has something in his pocket. It turns out to be a dead mouse that Lennie was petting as they walked. (Pg. 6, Para 1-3) Lennie is a big, muscular man, and a stereotype for a person like that is being tough and not having many feelings. It is sweet that Lennie wants to pet the mouse as he walks because it shows that he does care for small things, unlike a stereotype of a big guy.

I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. “Cause I want you to stay with me.” (Steinbeck page 13). Well yes Lennie was kind of manipulating George but we do see that right here he shows that he indeed cares about the well being of Lennie.

It's been four months, the doctors don't know what else they can do. You don't want to accept it but, she tells you to. Your daughter, your own flesh and blood, pride and joy, is begging you to stop the pain and suffering with her big cloudy doll eyes. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, one of the main characters, George, had come upon an unthinkable situation, where he best friend, Lennie, murders the wife of Curley. George faces the decision to weather let Lennie live, and suffer from Curley's vengeance, or to end Lennie's life permanently, and save him from suffering. The novel makes it clear that mercy killing, the act of putting an animal or human down painlessly without suffering, is a human way to show compassion towards

In the same book George has some other ideas. George also had a goal of living on a farm. He wanted Lennie out of his life and be free with a woman. “I wish I wouldn’t have to deal with you.

Throughout this novella Lennie struggles with the aggressive thoughts overcoming his brain. When left alone with ''soft things'' he can get very violent without intending to be, in the book he hurt a puppy without even knowing of it. Lennie has one person that he depends on and it is George – the man who has been there for him throughout his life. Lennie's mental retardation is foreshadowing of the events that will take place, tragic and blood

John Steinbeck portrays the need of companionship throughout the novel using George's relationship with Lennie on a multitude of occasions. This is done first by showing how George cannot stand the thought of him and Lennie being separated. It is conveyed to George by Lennie that he could live on his own in a cave if he is unwanted; however, George instantaneously pushes the thought away saying, "You can jus' as well go to

Lennie continued to be a hindrance to George in both his personal and professional life. Throughout their journey, the author acquainted us with Lennie's tendency of stroking and petting soft things. The time when Lennie killed a small mouse foreshadowed similar upcoming events. At times when Lennie did something wrong, George would tell him off calling him ‘you crazy fool’ he would whimper and quiver his lip like a child. Many other examples during the story showed us Lennie’s child like mentality which was a disturbing and annoying for George, having him to blush in front of people for Lennie’s

When introduced he was described as “a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders..”(2) Lennie has the mind of a child because of his mental illness. Whenever he talks in the story, his voice sounds innocent to me. At the end of the story Lennie ends up killing Curley’s wife on accident. George had told him to meet him by the Salinas river if he ever gets in any kind of trouble. He started to imagine a voice in his head. It was his Aunt Clara. She explains that he never takes care and that he does bad thing. His response “I tried and tried. I couldn’t help it.”(101) He was saying that he would go live in a cave and he’ll live there so he doesn’t cause anymore trouble. His conscious is saying “you’re always sayin’ that, an’ you know sonafabitching well you ain't never gonna do it.(101) In this chapter it makes me have so much sympathy for him because he’s thinking all these unkind things about himself and he just feels so hated, and lonely.

Although Lennie made George's life hard sometimes, Lennie felt like family and George loved him. "The character George Milton represents Steinbeck's theme of the ultimate sacrifice, that of a loved one, to protect them from further pain, even if it means living on with the guilt of not being able to defend them" ("Of Mice and Men") George sacrificed his one true friend to protect him from the wrath of the other men. "George didn't want Lennie to suffer from the way the men were going to torture him, and he wanted to put him out of misery with his illness. George lost his closest friend but also saved him in a way" ("Sacrifice"). George made a sacrifice for Lennie that he would never forget. “I ain't got no people…. 'Course Lennie's a God damn nuisance most of the time, but you get used to goin' around with a guy an' you can't get rid of him.” (Steinbeck 45) By taking Lennie's life George finally gave himself a life but also lost the only person who loved

“Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water and wiggled his fingers so the water arose in little splashes; rings widened across the pool to the other side and came back again. Lennie watched them go. "Look, George. Look what I done”” (Steinbeck 3)

Although never directly stated, it is obvious to the reader that Lennie has some sort of mental disability. Steinbeck writes “Aunt Clara was gone, and from out of Lennie’s head there came a gigantic rabbit” (Steinbeck 101). When Lennie imagined this happening the strangest part is that he heard his voice scolding him, not Aunt Clara’s. This clearly shows he has some sort of problem mentally, he can not even remember his former guardians voice even though they lived together for years. Another example of Lennie’s mental disability is when he meets Crooks, an African-American worker that everyone pretty much avoids for the sheer fact that he is black.

Crooks and Curley’s wife are kind to him because he treats them kind in return. He wasn’t allowed to talk to Curley’s wife or Crooks, but he did anyway. Lennie loves soft things, and he acts like a child, but he can’t help it. “I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail.” (Steinbeck 7)

Tension in the novel again rises when there is a conversation between Lennie, his aunt Clara and a “gigantic rabbit”. Let alone everything we see to show the workings of Lennies mind, we can still tell that his mind is childlike if he is having imagery of a “gigantic” talking “rabbit”. The hallucinations that Lennie has shows that his mind is slowly breaking making the atmosphere more tense.

John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.