Of Mice and Men: Book Report

             In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck shows the possibilities and effects of life on Lennie, Crooks and George. It shows a view of two outsiders struggling to understand their own unique places in the world.
             Although Lennie does not have the potential to be smart, he has the potential to be a hard worker. Lennie is an extremely large man who was incredibly strong. Although he was a great worker, he did not understand how strong he was. George explains Lennie's strength by saying "that big bastard can put up more grain alone than most pairs can,"(p. 34) Through his size and his enormous amount of strength, Lennie could odo more work on the ranch by himself than all the other men could.
             Without George, Lennie does not understand what to do. He will do whatever George tells him to. Lennie's first instinct when he is frightened is to hold on. Just as a small child holds on to its mum or dad when they become frightened, Lennie holds on to objects, he cannot think of anything other than to hold on to the nearest object till it all goes away, possibly as a means of security? Because of Lennie's inability to understand his strength, he becomes frightened and tries to silence Curley's wife, she had told him to stroke her hair because it was soft, but then she starts to scream as she thinks that he is trying to assualt her, and, as a result, she ends up being killed: "She took Lennie's hand and put it on her head...And then she cried angrily...Lennie's fingers closed on her hair and hung on...He shook her and her body flopped like a fish...And then she was still"(p. 91). Lennie did not understand his strength and became frightened. He ended up breaking Curley's wife neck.
             Unlike Lennie, Crooks' potential is his knowledge, and Crooks has the ability to use this knowledge to try to escape the problems he has on the ranch; however, Crooks has an oldfashioned attitude that black people are not as good as white people, and choose
             ...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Of Mice and Men: Book Report. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 16:44, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/76986.html