Of Mice And Men Essay

Justice Toailoa

Mr.Sutherland

English p.2

19 Oct.2010                    

                                       Of Mice And Men 

                      Of Mice And Men is a novella by John Steinbeck. The story focuses on two characters Lennie and George who travel to California on the hope of owning their own ranch. They run into trouble as they find jobs in another ranch in Soledad. The central conflict in Of Mice And Men is character verses self because the character Lennie struggles against himself and against his illness in order to survive. Lennie has lots of difficulty with controlling himself to act proper and to behave like a regular person. Especially around others who aren’t familiar with his illness.

                       

                                In the book Of Mice And Men Lennie struggles against himself to behave. The incident between Lennie and a young girl in a red dress show this problem that Lennie has with himself. 

         

        “ What did he do in weed ?” Slim asked calmly. 

       “ Well , he seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like he is, he wants to touch everything he likes. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk,...... and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do.  I was just a little bit off, and i heard all the yellin’, so i comes running , an’ by that time Lennie’s so scared all he could think to do is jus’ hold on. I socked him over the head with a fence picket to make him let go.”(41)

Lennie is unable to control himself in situations where he is on his own. When Lennie is holding on to the girls dress all he wants to do is feel the red dress not to be a pervert, but he doesn’t mean any harm. Though other  people who might not know Lennie, to them this is something that you shouldn’t do because most likely the guy or whoever may be touching the dress isn’t doing it to just touch the dress, but for their own personal pleasures. Especially when George explains how Lennie only thought of the option to hold on to the dress. Usually a person without an illness like Lennie’s would have known to let go, but since Lennie was unable to control himself he couldn’t just let go and resolve the problem or even let the girl know that he just wanted to touch the dress.

                       Another incident in Of Mice And Men Lennie finds himself unable to take of things as simple as a pet when a character Slim has a litter of new born pups and decides to give one to Lennie, but only when he is ready.

             “ I tol’ you you couldn’t bring that pup in here.” 

            “ What pup, george? I ain’t got no pup.” 

         George went Quickly to him, grabbed him by the shoulder and rolled him over. he reached down and picked the tiny puppy from where Lennie had been concealing it against his stomach.                              Lennie sat up quickly. “ Give ‘um to me, George”  George said. “ You get right up an’ take this pup back to the nest. He’s gotta sleep with his mother. You want to kill him? (43)

Unable to see what he is doing to the puppy Lennie could have potentially killed the new born pup. As you can see he couldn’t contain his emotions towards the new born puppy. He was unable to control himself in order to see the harm he was bringing to the new born puppy. He wasn’t able to restrain himself from wanting the puppy though he knew that George wasn’t going to let him have it until he knew he was ready to have the puppy.

                 As the story goes on you can see how Lennie’s illness becomes worse and worse. In the following quote you can identify the problem Lennie faces with his sickness that he goes through yet he is incapable of containment of his own mind.

                    “And then from out of Lennie’s head there came a little fat old woman. She wore thick bull’s-eye glasses and she wore a huge gingham apron with pockets, and she was starched and clean. She stood in front of Lennie and out her hands on her hips, and she frowned dissapprovingly at him.”(91)

As Lennie’s hallucinations show his mental illness take over he couldn’t control his mind to act right. Though he didn’t know that he was hallucinating his mind takes him on a whole different adventure. This shows that Lennie struggles with himelf just to stay sane as a worker and as a person to contain his life and to be like everyone else. Though others would say he is becoming insane or even crazy, it’s wrong because he someone with and illness, but someone who is fighting against it. The disease wasn’t Lennie’s fault or anyone else’s fault, It was something Lennie unfortunately was given.

                                      As you can see Lennie finds lots of trouble with himself to be a regular person. We understand  that when people descriminate against other people with a disability, but in reality it could turn out to be a whole different story. By being prejudice  we ignore the truth of someone who could make difference in our lives. Yet we choose to look away because we know we could never be strong enough to handle the reality, and maybe that is why we lie.