Of Mice and Men

Lennie Small from the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a large guy; that is too strong for his own good. He is the big, stocky character that is the follower because he is mentally a little slow. Well in this case he is a little more than a than slow, he is mentally challenged. His mental ability clashes with his physical structure several times in this book. His mind just can not control his body. Throughout the whole book, all he wants is to be able to take care of rabbits; his obsession with soft things overtakes him numerous times. He runs into problems when he is trying to make this dream a reality because he has to work for the money to buy land for his rabbits. He becomes impatient for his rabbits and he ends up being accused of rape on a woman who had on a soft dress, kills mice, kills his puppy, and ultimately kills Curley’s wife. These are great examples of how mentally limited Lennie is. He always overcomes these conflicts with the help of his great friend George comforting him. He goes from a sweet, sensitive guy to a killing machine many times in this novel because he loves the soft things, but when they get away from him, he becomes angry and kills them. I did not make any personal connections with the character, Lennie, because he does not relate to me at all. However, I spent the entire book feeling bad for him because even though he can’t control himself, he doesn't even understand that what he does wrong is bad until it is too late. Lennie Small makes this book what it is because he causes all the foolish conflicts because of his mental ability, and no matter how bad it becomes his good friend, George, always takes care of him.