Of Mice and Men uses Lennie’s disability to help show the theme of the book. George struggled with taking care Lennie, having to keep finding work, and keeping a steady job. Lennie was the reason why George had to leave Weed. Lennie didn’t understand right from wrong. The book does a nice job of showing Lennie’s disability and his need for companionship.
Lennie is considered as an outsider because of his mental disability. Crooks is considered an outsider because he is an old black man whom back is hurt and can’t really stand up straight the reason why he’s even working in the ranch is because he’s the only one who knows how to keep the stables in control. Candy is considered an outsider because he’s an old man with one of his hands disabled. Curley’s wife was considered as an outsider
It shows difficulty with candy by how he is reduced down to the swamper, but before he was able to work in the fields and that is how he got hurt and lost his hand. “The old swamper looked quickly at him, and then shuffled to the door rubbing his whiskers with his knuckles as he went” (21). Another reason there are people with disabilities in this book is to make it unpredictable. It makes it unpredictable because you never know what Lennie is going to do. Having people with disabilities creates foreshadowing, not because they have disabilities, but because what they do.
Candy is lonely because of his age, he lost his dog, and his physical disability. Candy’s age is one of the reasons that affect his loneliness, “I ain’t got the poop no more” (20). He said this when the others go to town on Saturday night because he is too old to go out with them, and he thinks he would not fit in. Secondly, after Candy lost his dog he was lonelier, “Candy lay still, staring at the ceiling” (49). When Carlson asked to take Candy’s dog to kill it, Candy would not answer and just lay still and stare at the ceiling because he was sad that he would lose his only friend.
In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, two migrant workers, George and Lennie, travel together in search of work; but the friendship that binds them is neither typical of men like them nor a typical friendship at all. George is a small, sharp man, intelligent and resourceful; enough so that he is not obliged by nature to work as a laborer and migrant worker – and yet his relationship with Lennie makes it impossible for him to have other dreams and ambitions, much less achieve them, than those few he can have that include Lennie. Lennie himself is a gigantic bear of a man, burley, possessing immense strength; and yet his mind is that of a dim-witted, dependent child inside a strong man’s body. He is entirely dependent on George and as obedient and compliant with his orders as a trained – if not very bright, and prone to unintentionally stirring up trouble – dog. At the start of the story, the pair have recently fled from their previous job after Lennie is wrongly accused of raping a young woman, an accusation which puts his life - and quite possibly George’s by association - in danger; they are making their way towards Salinas, California, for a new job bucking barley.
Both honest mistakes that he didn’t even know he made. The ignorance shown towards Lennie in the novel was due to the time period and the people’s lack of knowledge. People in the story like “The boss” just thought that Lennie wasn’t smart because he just didn’t talk much unless it was to his best friend George. There was ignorance in Raymond because his brother thought that he could remove Ray from his schedules at his home and take him with him. The Ignorance was that Ray needed those schedules or he will have a fit.
Of Mice and Men is really about Lennie and George’s journey and relationship with each other, and how they really need each other in their lives. Lennie is very dependent on George. George is one of his only friends and a very important person in his life. George guides Lennie through his life like a father would to his son. The first thought when Lennie is doing something wrong or bad is George because he knows that George wouldn’t want him to being in it.
George only had one choice, and that was to take care of Lennie himself. Even though the dream was more achievable now that Lennie was gone, it ment nothing to George. Everything that George ever had in his mind was destroyed with the mistake of leaving Curley's wife and Lennie together. The best laid plans of mice and men often go wrong. In conclusion the reader feels most sympathetic for George because taking care of Lennie caused him many unavoidedable problems, emotional burdens that will haunt him for the rest of his life, and a shattered dream.
Crooks is a man, supposedly young but disabled, that likes books and keeps his small room neat, but has been so beaten down by loneliness and prejudicial treatment of that he is now suspicious of any kindness he receives. Racial discrimination is part of the microcosm Steinbeck describes in his story. It reaches its height in the novel when Curley's wife puts Crooks "in his place" by telling him that a word from her will have him lynched. Interestingly, only Lennie, the child-like character, does not see the color of Crooks' skin. Crooks isn’t ashamed about his inheritance but has pride and tells Lennie he doesn’t descend from slaves but from landowners.
We are able to see that they work together and travel in search for jobs, but we don’t discover much of their past until we reach chapter three where George confesses some personal information to a trustworthy worker on the farm named Slim. On page 39 slim says “Hardly none on the guys ever travel together. It jus’ seems kinda funny a cuckoo like him and a smart little guy like you travelin’ together.” George explains to him that they were both from the same town and that George used to have fun with Lennie and take advantage of his stupidity to cause harm to him for his own pleasure, since then it appears that Lennie has had some sort of devotion towards George regardless of the abuse. When Lennie’s aunt Clara died Lennie came along with George and they were together ever since. This shows just that Lennie and George have been together for quite a long time and the brotherhood they share must be deep, and it also shows that although Lennie is a nuisance George puts up with him because he truly loves and cares for him as if he were his own