Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose." However, Lennie is the complete opposite to George, Lennie is " 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. His arms did not swing at his side, but hung loosely". Lennie is loving and lonely, but because of his immaturity he doesn't realise his strength, which gets him and George in trouble, because of his intellectual disability he likes to touch anything soft which also gets them in trouble, this occurred in the last ranch they worked in, when Lennie touched the dress of a young girl and that caused trouble and lead to them being chased out of the ranch. George on the other hand, is the complete opposite of Lennie he is smart, strong and talks to people.
Women were another vulnerable group because they were always paid at a lower rate than men. There was no safety net for people who fell into poverty other than resorting to the ‘workhouse’ which had been established to deal with cases of extreme poverty in Trade unions had little power as the Taff Vale Incident of 1901 showed and Friendly Societies could only provide a limited amount of help. Attitudes to poverty in the early 20th century were quite unsympathetic many politicians from both the Liberal and Conservative party felt that poverty came from personal laziness. Both parties had an attitude of “laissez-faire” i.e. non interference from the government.
“Whatever we aint got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy” George is just lashing out at Lennie he wouldn’t be without him. (page 28) Lennie Small, is a migrant worker who is mentally handicapped, small in name but enormous in stature, he is described as shapeless and that he lumbers like a bear and is as strong as one but his actions are often described like those of a dog. “he walked heavily dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely” (page 19) This is an example of Lennie being compared to an animal, a bear no less, a massive occasionally violent creature.
enThe novel ‘Of Mice And Men’ is set in America during the 1930’s and follows the occurrences of life for two migrant workers, George and Lennie. The two men are typical workers of that time, travelling to find work due to the depression with no set home or families, no money to buy nice clothes and no education so they mostly spoke in dialect. We learn these poor people each had their own different personalities regardless of the fact they were not very knowledgeable. We soon learn that George and Lennie’s friendship is very rare for migrant worker and why they stick together. We see from the very beginning of the novella that George and Lennie have it hard When Lennie is first introduced to us we gain an extremely strong impression of him when Steinbeck describes how he walks: “Dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags its paws” By comparing Lennie to a bear we get the impression that he is primitive, unpredictable and instinctive.”Dragging his feet” however makes him sound like a worn out child, but we know him to be a grown man, this is where we get the first hint that he may have some sort of impediment.
The two men have been traveling together in California and have just gotten a job on a ranch. They start saving money for their future. When they arrive, they meet an old man, Candy, who tells them about the other ranch hands. Curly, the boss’s son is small and hates big strong
Lennie and George were the two best of friends. Although Lennie, is a main character, he is not very dynamic. “Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with tide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.” (Steinbeck 2). So Lennie was a huge man, that was the complete opposite of his best friend.
Lennie is a very interesting and major character in the novel. Lennie is very simple-minded “you ain’t got sense enough” but he is described as “a big fella” even though Lennie is full grown adult he still acts like a child “blubberin’
The conditions of the houses were very poor; they were mostly made out of cheap materials, were very small and packed closely together. The houses were small firstly to fit more houses into an area (creating more homes) and secondly because a small place and a house built with cheap materials was all the working class families could afford. In conclusion Australia in the 1900 was far from a ‘working man’s paradise’. This can be said because compare to today’s standards, the living and working conditions were quite poor. They received unfair pay, had horrid living and working conditions and worked longer hours compared to today.
When he arrived he knew something seemed different, but he did not bother to care, for he could no longer hold back stomach twisting hunger inside him. He burst through the front doors, like he always did, leaving only small planks and splinters behind. However there were no guards trying to fend him off. And no tasty cowering men at the back wall. There was only a tall bearded man facing Grendel with a determined look in his eye.
Many people did not have money to spend in businesses and businesses also took out loans that needed to be paid back. However, without business they were not making any money resulting in business failure. This also hurt the economy. After the war the price of grain dropped and farmers