Preview

Weak Characters in of Mice and Men

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
715 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Weak Characters in of Mice and Men
Lennie and Crooks are two weak characters in of Mice and Men. In the tough working environment which was America’s 1920s, the time of the Great Depression, there was no place for mentally or physically insufficient people, it was survival of the fittest and “every man for himself.”
We learn of Lennie’s non-existent capacity to care for himself early on in the novel. Even at the very start of the novel we see that “The two men walked in single file down the path, and even in the open one stayed behind the other.” This shows that George (who is in front) is the clear leader of the two. Lennie also shows how he is not as comfortable with humans as he is with animals- “He walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws.” This means that George has to give him precise instructions how to act around other people other than himself, as he could ruin things for the both of them if he “opens his god damn mouth”
George, faced with the dilemma of the men at the ranch “seeing him talk before he works” has to use his knowledge of Lennie to help him remember, so he gives him a reward for remembering. “Good boy! That’s fine, Lennie! When we get the coupla acres I can let you tend the rabbits alright. Specially if you remember as good as that.” He knows that Lennie never remembers anything unless if it has something to do with tending rabbits, which he is obsessed with.
Lennie often doesn’t know how to act around other humans, so when confronted with violence, he is helpless and can’t respond without instructions from George. “Lennie looked helplessly at George, then he got up and tried to retreat. ‘Make ‘um stop, George.” He only begins to fight back when George encourages him “Get ‘im, Lennie!”
Crooks, is another weak character in Of Mice and Men. However, Crooks is in fact quite intelligent as we can see from Steinbeck’s description of his room “And he had books too, a tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The relationship between george and lennie had their ups and downs, Lennie’s problems would always seem to get them in trouble. Lennie wasn’t the smartest in the world so he often needed help with his…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    People always tell him bad things and he believes it or doesn’t want to believe it and ends up threatening the person. “Jump in the river Lennie”(Steinbeck,40). Lennie also does whatever george tells him to do. So if George tells him to kill someone, Lennie won’t hesitate and go and do it with no mercy.…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book 'Of Mice and Men' mainly illustrates the ranch life of Lennie and George and the conflicts between Lennie and other workers. The author uses details of their experience to demonstrate the helplessness and the powerlessness of the victims of the Great Depression and the falsity of American dream.…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is clear from the beginning that Lennie cannot tell what's right and wrong. It starts out with Lennie killing small animals such as his pet mice. He then progresses to getting into trouble in Weed because he wanted to feel her soft dress giving them no other choice but to run.When they finally find a new place to stay Lennie gets into more trouble when he kills his puppy and then killing Curley’s wife. At this point he knew that George would be mad but he doesn’t know exactly why so he grabs the puppy's corpse and goes to hide. In Lennie's mind it's better to have one dead thing rather than two. To him taking the puppy and hiding it will mean he will be in less trouble. This is obviously not the case he had killed a woman and didn’t realize how bad of a thing he had done. Some people might say that George did not have to kill Lennie he could have just locked him up or ran. However George had warned him not to do this stuff but Lennie just couldn’t learn from his past mistakes causing him to take someone's…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 'Of Mice and Men', John Steinbeck includes a character, Crooks, as a stereotype of black people in the Great Depression; proud, bitter, and very sarcastic. Crooks is also extremely pessimistic and cold-hearted, due to the way people had been treating him all his life. Steinbeck portrays many of his characters lonely and isolated. Just as Candy's age and handicap isolate him, and Curley's wife's being a female makes her life solitary, Crooks's race is the main reason for his isolation. Because of his race, he is discriminated and must live in a separate room (a shed), away from everyone else. Steinbeck revolves all of Chapter 4 around Crooks so that he could convey Crooks loneliness and isolation.…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How Is Lennie Different

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In both the movie and the book lennie is said to be very strong , which he is, but because he is so different from all of the other workers, he does not know how to control his strength. Since lennie he is not like many other workers he does not act the same. Lennie is a man of many different actions. Some bad, some good, and some are just completely unordinary. Even though george does not make it seem at times that he does not want Lennie around, he really does.…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Did you know that in the 1930’s if somebody did something another person disapproved of they could hang the person from a tree and torture them as a social gathering? This was called lynching, they also would experiment on mentally ill people in hopes to “cure their crazies.” These are only a few of America’s dirty little secrets that are revealed about the 1930’s. In the book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the main characters George and Lennie strived to have their own farm, but everywhere they go Lennie gets in trouble forcing them out. This causes George to have to decide on whether or not to leave Lennie and go on his own. George did the right thing by killing Lennie because otherwise Lennie would have suffered, he didn’t want to have the guilt of letting Lennie die stay with him forever, and he knew that Lennie would just get in trouble again.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Crooks is the loneliest in the novela since he doesn't have friends or hangs out .In the book they describe him as a man who wants to have same friends but is afreade to make any.When lennie get in side the room crooks he is all mean but he just wants a person to interact.Crook is a nice guy but acts all rude to ather pepole.At the end crook made a friend but he will be stuke duing his job at the ranch.because gerorg killd lennie.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    " "˜I turns to Lennie and says, "˜Jump in.' An' he jumps. Couldn't swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him.' " (p. 44) Not only is Lennie unable to understand the meaning of importance, he has no memory of important assertions if they do not directly pertain to rabbits. He cannot even remember his Aunt Clara, who took him in as a baby, and he lived with until she passed away. In order for Lennie to conceptualize and remember ideas or instructions, he must repeatedly recite them to George; even this ritual will not insure a recollection of the information. Although Lennie's poor memory is a severe problem, his ultimate drawback, is his unacceptable behavior. Although unintentional, Lennie causes harm, and…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Of Mice and Men”, Steinbeck uses the character of Crooks to convey ideas about racism in 1930 America during the Great Depression. Crooks is the only black man in the novella who is ostracized by the other ranch hands and it is through his character that we experience the view of blacks in America during 1930s. Crooks doesn’t live in the bunkhouse with the…

    • 660 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lennie will not do things unless George commands him. “Lennie’s hands remained at his sides; he was…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lennie Sympath

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lennie was born with a disability that causes mental retardation, because of this he doesn´t always know right from wrong and acts like a kid. He shows this when he gets upset at George for taking away his dead mouse that he hid in his pocket. George tells him that he can say a word when they get to the ranch that they are going to work at, if he does then they might not be hired because of Lennie's impairment. George says to Lennie, ¨If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won´t get no job, but if he sees ya work before he hears ya talk, we're set¨ (6). This tells us that…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “George said, ‘Guys like us got no fambly. They make a little stake an’ then they blow it in. They ain’t got nobody in the worl’ that gives a hoot in hell about ’em--’ ‘But not us,’ Lennie cried happily. ‘Tell about us now.’ George was quiet for a moment. ‘But not us,’ he said. ‘Because--’ ‘Because I got you an’--’ ‘An; I got you. We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in hell about us,’ Lennie cried in triumph. In the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, we learn a lot about the characters, Lennie, Candy, Curley, and more. Several of the characters in this book display physical and mental impairments, which influence and reflect their roles in this novel.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the novella "Of Mice and Men" the character Crooks is used by John Steinbeck to represent the isolation of the black community occurring in the 1930’s. Crooks also gives an offer for an insight into the actuality of the American Dream and the feelings of all the ranch workers: their loneliness and call for company and human communication. This allows the reader to chose whether they feel sympathy for the broken down, hard working, isolated stable buck or if he is just a cruel, malicious, bitter man.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the novella George protects Lennie to much. His mental retardation was a problem that couldn’t be solved, however learning experience would have benefitted Lennie and helped him understand situations better, rather than George repeatedly protecting him every step of his life. He was always responsible for Lennie and that shouldn’t have been the case. Humans should fend for themselves, if everyone picks us up everytime we will never learn how to fend on our own. What George did is exactly what someone’s not suppose to do and that’s repeatly pick someone back up. We saw in Of men and mice what happens when one does that. Lennie just keep doing what he was doing because George never punished him for it. Instead George protected Lennie throughout the whole novella. For example, when George shoots Lennie in the back of the head at the end of the novella. “Look down there acrost the river, like you can almost see the place.” (103). George even brings comfort to Lennie in his final moments. Lennie never learned how to fend for himself and that was the demise of…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays