How does Steinbeck present and develop Lennie in Of Mice and Men

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How does Steinbeck present and develop Lennie in Of Mice and Men?

Steinbeck introduces Lennie as an animal ‘a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders: and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws.’ We can tell through the use of Steinbeck’s vocabulary, ‘huge…pale eyes…sloping shoulders’ that Lennie is a big person. Lennie’s pale eyes are as though to signify there is not much going on behind those eyes – as though he is absent minded from reality. In this description we also get animal imagery for the first time, ‘the way a bear drags his paws’ which could show through the use of the word ‘drags’ that Lennie is a slow person not just mentally but also physically. Furthermore, a bear is a large animal which is thought to be dangerous; however bears only attack when they are scared or protecting themselves – just as Lennie does when he attacks Curley, here Steinbeck is foreshadowing key ideas.

As Lennie is compared to a bear, he is also described as ‘snorting into the water like a horse’; this can tell us a few things about Lennie. Through the use of the word ‘snorting’, we are made to believe that Lennie doesn’t have many social graces, which would be representative of ranch workers of that time, but it could also reinforce the idea that Lennie is mentally impaired, since mentally impaired people may not have many social graces. As well as this, a horse is an animal which only attacks people when it is afraid also, this reiterates the idea of Lennie being a character that defends himself and only attacks others when he is scared.

There is almost juxtaposition between Lennie’s and George’s descriptions. Lennie is big and clumsy; George is small and cautious. Steinbeck presents Lennie and George’s relationship as a father-son relationship, with George being the father and Lennie being son. In the novella, Steinbeck not only describes Lennie as an animal but as a child also. ‘”Lennie!” he said sharply. “Lennie for God’ sakes don’t drink so much”’ this line shows how authoritative George is in the relationship. It also tells us about Lennie’s character, as even though George speaks ‘sharply’ to get his attention, Lennie ignores him just as a disobedient child would to their parent.

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Additionally, Lennie isn’t weary of the water being unsafe to drink, whereas George is. ‘“Lennie. You gonna be sick  like you was last night”’  shows us that Lennie doesn’t learn from his mistakes, like a young child doesn’t, here Steinbeck foreshadows another key idea of Lennie not learning from his mistakes as throughout the book this proves to be one of Lennie’s downfalls. Lennie reacted to George’s comment by carrying on even more, when he ‘dipped his whole head under, hat and all’. This continues the idea of Lennie being a disobedient child, as when a parent tells their child ...

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