Lennie In 'Of Mice And Men'

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Tori Blanchard January, 20th, 2015 Honors English Of Mice And Men Essay In the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, certain characters have a combination of positive and negative traits which determine their characteristics from the reader’s perspective. Lennie, the protagonist with a mental disability, has many traits. He is innocent, sensitive and unintentionally violent which makes his character positive yet negative for many different reasons. Lennie has a childlike innocence. He is innocent and mentally handicapped. He has no ability to understand concepts that people his age would normally understand. He can not understand abstract concepts like death. Lennie shows innocence from petting soft things. Petting soft things helps Lennie feel safe. In petting dead mice, Lennie is doing something that makes him feel safe. Lennie’s mental disability makes him into a child, with a child's innocence. He is a child trapped in the body of a powerful man. Because of his mental disability, he is unable to understand the power of his own strength. From the beginning of the story, John Steinbeck stresses Lennie’s childlike innocence through his many behaviors which inevitably leads…show more content…
Some examples which prove this character trait are his obsession with soft things. Lennie is obsessed with soft things. When the world gets complicated, he finds happiness by petting soft things including his puppy. Since he can’t find happiness with his eyes due to him being blind, his sense of touch makes him feel joy. Lennie loves watching the rabbits. Sometimes George doesn't let Lennie tend the rabbits but since Lennie is like a child, he looks up to George and listens to everything that he says. Lastly, he’s so caring and gentle and doesn't process deaths. Lennie is very sensitive and doesn't accept the fact that people die. He’s very gentle and gets emotional around the fact that things like this happen in life to
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