Of Mice And Men: Lenni & # 8217 ; es Worst Enemy Is His Own Strength Essay, Research Paper
Lennie Small is a soft giant who possesses and about superhuman strength that finally leads to tragedy. We foremost read about Lennie & # 8217 ; s great strength in the gap scene when he has killed, likely by accident, the pet mouse he has in his pocket. We learn that it is non the first clip Lennie has killed pets. During the same scene, Steinbeck compares him to a bear and a Equus caballus, both strong animate beings. This imagination of Lennie as an animate being continues. He is besides compared to a terrier, bespeaking that he is a faithful and loyal comrade to George.
Steinbeck makes his characters pick up the carnal mentions excessively. When George tells the foreman that Lennie is: & # 8220 ; Strong as a ball, & # 8221 ; Lennie repeats the statement. The repeat has the consequence of once more giving the reader hints that Lennie & # 8217 ; s strength ailment be important to the development of the narrative. Steinbeck to the full develops the carnal comparing at the terminal by pulling a analogue between confect and his no longer utile old Canis familiaris, and George as the maestro of the dog-like Lennie, who can no longer be utile after he has by chance killed Curley & # 8217 ; s married woman.
All the other characters witness Lennie & # 8217 ; s strength Oklahoman or subsequently. George references it often, and Slim says: & # 8220 ; ? I ne’er seen such a worker. He damn nigh killed his spouse bukin & # 8217 ; barley. There ain & # 8217 ; t cipher can maintain up with him. God Godhead, I ne’er seen such a strong guy. & # 8221 ;
Presentations of Lennie & # 8217 ; s strength continue with inside informations of the incident in Weed when Lennie is accused of assailing a miss, which we do non witness, the mangling of Curley & # 8217 ; s first, and the inadvertent violent death of both the puppy and Curley & # 8217 ; s married woman.
There are times with Lennie & # 8217 ; s strength is a positive advantage, nevertheless, and, if harnessed suitably, which George efforts to make every bit much as he can, it is a virtuousness. Equally long as Lennie keeps quiet at interviews and Lashkar-e-Taibas George do the speaking, he makes and first-class feeling as a worker and likely contributes greatly to guaranting that the brace continue to happen work during a period of really high unemployment during the Great Depressions. He is besides able to support himself, which George calls upon him to make when Curley attacks him for no existent ground. Sadly, this could be a us
eful property to hold in topographic points where many unhappy work forces are cooped up together with few chances to take a interruption from each other.
The job of Lennie & # 8217 ; s strength, therefore, is his deficiency of ability to command it, and it is of import non to overlook that Lennie & # 8217 ; s barbarous actions are ne’er knowing. As Slender notices: & # 8220 ; He ain & # 8217 ; t mean. I can see Lennie ain & # 8217 ; t a spot mean. & # 8221 ; And as Lennie says to George: & # 8220 ; I don & # 8217 ; t want no problem? Don & # 8217 ; t allow him bop me, George. & # 8221 ;
Lennie & # 8217 ; s endearing qualities and deficiency of aggression are ne’er better demonstrated than when George tells Lennie that should Curley seek to contend him, he should & # 8220 ; allow & # 8216 ; im have it, & # 8221 ; and Lennie answers: & # 8216 ; Let & # 8216 ; im have what, George? & # 8217 ; If Lennie had Curley & # 8217 ; s average disposition, he truly would be unsafe. Merely when the dream of populating off the fat of the land seems realizable does Lennie show and marks of aggression. Even so, the objects of his choler are & # 8220 ; fanciful cats & # 8221 ; that could endanger & # 8220 ; fanciful rabbits. & # 8221 ;
Lennie & # 8217 ; s deficiency of control over his ain strength would likely be limited to the injury he innocently inflicts on his pets if he lived and worked in more sympathetic milieus but the spread is a hostile topographic point, full of despairing characters where inequalities of power and belongings are really evident and exploited. If Curley and his male parent, the foreman, were kinder and if Curley treated his married woman with the regard he should hold shown toward her, the tragic decision would non hold occurred.
Against this background, Lennie likes to touch and pet soft things, and each of the three times when it truly matters he becomes scared and won & # 8217 ; t allow travel. At Weed, he touches a miss & # 8217 ; s frock, and she misunderstands his simple purposes. When Curley bullies him he crushes his fist, alternatively of warning Curley off with less force per unit area because he gets frightened and can non allow travel. The concluding tragic incident is triggered by Curley & # 8217 ; s married woman offering him her hair to touch, and her panicky reaction to his clasp on it.
If Lennie existed in existent life today, her would be cared for in a sheltered environment where he might larn to pull off is strength or where is chances to exert it would be limited. On the face of it, there forward, his strength is his ruin, but the existent job is his deficiency of control over it a hostile universe.
