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A* Revision Notes "Of Mice and Men" John Steinbeck
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a* REVISION NOTES Of Mice and Men
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GCSE ENGLISH LITERATUREJOHN STEINBECK’S NOVELLA – OF MICE AND MEN
Lennie Small is a pivotal character in Of Mice and Men. He is a huge,
lumbering man whose bearlike appearance hides an innocent and gentle
disposition. His hands are repeatedly described as “paws”. Lennie has an
unnamed mental disability—according to George, this is the result of an
accident as a child, though this is probably not true. His childlike disposition,
fallible short-term memory, and fascination with stroking and petting soft
things are indicators of the ways in which his strong exterior conceals a side
of Lennie that many people, were they to witness it, would see as weak and
seek to exploit. George is intensely protective of Lennie, and though the other
ranch hands perceive their traveling together as strange or even suspect, it
becomes clear over the course of the novella that the two men are only able
to survive in the harsh landscape of the Depression-engulfed American West
with the support of each other. Lennie is a hard worker capable of lifting
incredible weights, but the side of him most often portrayed throughout the
novella is the side obsessed with raising soft rabbits, petting puppies, and
fantasising about a comfortable and idyllic future together on a farm with
George. Lennie clearly has no concept his own strength, a fact that is
evidenced by his repeated killings of animals including mice and a puppy.
Steinbeck uses these accidental killings of creatures to foreshadow the
tragedy that is to unfold. His lack of conception of his own strength ultimately
leads to him accidentally murdering Curley’s wife, which occurs when he
shakes her too vigorously after she begins screaming as a result of Lennie
grabbing her hair—something she invited him to do so as to allow him to
touch something soft. Lennie flees the ranch and hides in a meeting-spot he
and George chose before arriving at the ranch, believing George will come to
his rescue so that they can flee together. Instead, George distracts Lennie
with a story about how they’ll soon have their farm where “Nobody gonna
hurt nobody” before shooting him in the back of the head in order to save
Lennie from the wrath of the other laborers, who are out for revenge.
Gentle but fearfully strong, insecure but gregarious, and trusting to a
dangerous degree, Lennie is a mass of contradictions which fits in with the
, novella’s major themes of the strong and the weak, companionship, and
marginalisation and scapegoating.
Steinbeck uses animal comparisons to describe Lennie. The effect of this is to show his
strength but also the way he acts on instinct without forethought
Quotations – comparisons to animals
“dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws”
“snorting into the water like a horse”
“Lennie covered his face with his huge paws and bleated with terror”
“He pawed up the hay until it partly covered her”
When Crooks cruelly tells Lennie that George may have been killed or hurt he quickly
senses how dangerous Lennie could be and so he retracts his words and “Lennie
growled back to his seat”
Quotations – Lennie’s child-like mentality
Curley’s Wife tells him “you’re a kinda nice fella. Jus’ like a big baby”
Slim says of him “He’s jes’ like a kid, ain’t he”
Lennie is child-like and this is reflected in the paternal attitude of George towards him;
when pleased with Lennie he calls him “Good boy”
When Lennie is caught with a dead mouse in his pocket “he made an elaborate
pantomime of innocence” to George just as a child would
Examiners Comments on Discussions of Lennie
“Lennie’s character also elicited some thoughtful and sensitive responses. These, possibly
because of the character were more varied in ability. Many candidates noted his disability, with a
lot of sensitivity. Some commented on how he epitomised the dream and linked him directly to
Robert Burns’ poem ‘To a Fieldmouse’. His relationship with George was noted, as well as his
tendency towards violence coupled with his childlike innocence. One of the more confident
responses included this comment: ‘Lennie helps create dreams, yet ironically he is a destroyer of
dreams’. The candidate then proceeded to explain that it was Lennie’s tendency towards violence
that destroyed everyone’s dream, rather than Curley’s wife being the destructive element.”
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