Comparing John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men'

Of Mice and Men Research Paper

Of Mice and Men is the story of two men, George and Lennie, trying to achieve the American dream. Innocence is a prominent feature in Lennie’s personality, which is a large part of the story as a whole. In of Mice and Men, Steinbeck suggests that Lennie’s innocence is a burden to both Lennie and George in the world of evil men present in the story as seen through George’s constant trouble to keep Lennie from causing trouble, Lennie hurting others and feeling no remorse, Lennie’s killing of Curly’s Wife ultimately ruining the future life of the himself, and George, and Lennie holding George back from any of the opportunities that would’ve been open to him otherwise. Innocence doesn’t belong in cutthroat
Lennie, after having killed both the dog and Curly’s Wife, remarks about the dog’s body saying, "I 'll throw him away. It 's bad enough like it is" (Steinbeck 59). This quote shows how Lennie doesn’t even have a concept of death or murder. He is remorseless because he doesn’t understand what he’s done. This, in conjunction with his reckless actions, causes George to get in trouble with other characters throughout the story. In his essay, “On the Road to Tragedy: Mice, Candy and Land in Of Mice and Men,” Burt Cardullo remarks about Lennie’s remorseless killings, writing, “To wit, Lennie always killed the mice that his Aunt Clara gave him to play with by pinching their heads: he could’ve killed the girl in Weed when he tried to feel her dress (as if she was a mouse) and she strongly resisted” (Carudllo 23). Similarly, this quote shows how Lennie effortlessly kills animals and would do the same to humans had he got the chance, like he had done to Curly’s
Because the world of Of Mice and Men didn’t have this luxury, Lennie was often left to his own devices, causing most, if not all, of these problems. Lennie is of course a man with the mind of a child. This gives George a companion to travel with for his life and George enjoys his company for the most part. So maybe Lennie’s innocence isn’t such a bad thing, however we can see through his actions that it definitely is. In the evil world of migrant working, Lennie’s blind innocence doesn’t belong; this is shown through George having to constantly be a adult figure for Lennie, Lennie harming others but not realizing his own actions, Lennie murdering Curly’s Wife and preventing George from buying the farm, and Lennie’s presence preventing George from achieving any of his