The Role Of Mental Disabilities In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Introduction
The voices came close now. George raised the gun and listened to the voices. Lennie begged, “Le’s do it now. Le’s get that place now.” “Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta.”And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men, is a highly acclaimed book which most students have read. However, he brings up a lot of issues that were plaguing the world at the time. One of the main characters, named Lennie, was a mentally impaired man who cared so much for things, he would accidently kill them. As his friend, George knew that no one would allow Lennie
Statistically, 1 in 5 adults in the US (43.8 million) experiences mental illnesses in a given year. So, given the facts you’d expect that people would be accepting regarding people with mental disabilities; sadly this is not the case. Some business owners consider those who are mentally impaired as liabilities and hindrances to their business. They show this by doing many things, such as: Treat them unfairly, not allow them to do certain things, or making filling the workplace with physical barriers which make movement for people with physical disabilities very difficult. During the Great Depression, the time during which the book took place, if you had a mental disability you were considered crazed and/or insane. This is why George had to hide Lennie’s disability from the other workers. To combat this, America created “The Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2010 (42 U.S.C. 12101 ET seg)” (workplacefairness.org, page 1). In simplified terms the ADA makes it illegal for private business employers, state, government, employment agencies, and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals who have disabilities. Thanks to this, people with disabilities in the U.S. can apply for jobs that they want without having to worry about being discriminated
George raised the gun and listened to the voices. Lennie begged, “Le’s do it now. Le’s get that place now.” “Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta.”And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently, but his face setand his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men, is a highly acclaimed book which most students have read. However, he brings up a lot of issues that were plaguing the world at the time. One of the main characters, named Lennie, was a mentally impaired man who cared so much for things, he would accidently kill them. As his friend, George knew that no one would allow Lennie would work because of his mental disability. In modern day society, you would believe we would have advanced to the point where disabled people can work at any job within their capabilities. However this is not the case. An issue I have found in my story that applies to real life is, how people with mental disabilities are discriminated against in the