Book and Character Analysis

In "Of Mice and Men", the character Lennie has a disorder call mental retardation. From research, mental retardation makes the one diagnosed with it aggressive and also they don't learn as fast as the normal human. Lennie has this case that his brain is not as developed as Georges and all of the other characters. Because of this, George bosses him around because he can't think for himself. For example, when Curley was beating up Lennie, the normal person would react and try to fight back or escape. Lennie cannot think for himself so he just stood there getting beat up until George told him to fight back resulting in Lennie squeezing Curleys hand. Also, Lennies brain can't control how hard he wanted to squeeze Curleys hand so he over did it and broke his hand by mistake. Also, this time is placed in the time of the Great Depression. From research, most of the population of the United States were poor. This was the case for Lennie and George and everybody else who works at the ranch. They are all very poor so they have to do anything to make money. They are  doing labor work for only a little bit money just to stay alive.

Basic attributes of Lennie are obvious as stated in the book. Bulky and unintelligent. But really understanding the book lets one see the deep atributes that the author is trying to make readers realize. "Lennie dipped his whole head under, hat and all, and then he sat up on the bank and his hat dripped down on his blue coat and ran down his back. "Tha's good," he said" Lennie does not think abou the future. He lives in the present and does whatever he says he wants to do. Without thinking of the consequences of drinking from the green lake, he dumped his head in taking in big gulps. His carefree atribute lets him do stuff like this. "What you want of a dead mouse, anyways?" "I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along said," said Lennie" Someone mean and strong don't usually like to pet little creatures and rub their heads. Lennie is a 'gentle giant'. After lookinf past the bulky outside of Lennie, there is a gentleness atribute that Lennie has resulting him to like petting little creatures heads. Not all atributes of a person can be seen from the outside. The most important atributes are deep within. Never judge a book by its cover.