Victimization of the Impotent
Through utilization of the character Lennie Small, John Steinbeck exhibits the susceptibility of the weak to be preyed upon by those with power in his novella Of Mice and Men. Lennie, an ungainly, childlike migrant ranch worker in Soledad, California, harbors a mild mental disability. Owing to this lack of intellectual capacity, Lennie subsists utterly on the counsel and aegis fellow nomadic ranch worker George Milton provides. Blatantly naive and gentle, Lennie is nevertheless oblivious to the capability of the physical strength he possesses and the subsequent incidents it provokes. Steinbeck first wields Lennie as a character of superiority by allowing him to impose the power of his remarkable physical strength …show more content…
. .] they [are] so little. [I] pet 'em, and pretty soon they [bite] my fingers and I [pinch] their heads a little and then they [are] dead - because they [are] so little’”(Steinbeck 9). Lennie’s insistence on calling the mice “little” stresses the importance of physical weakness associated with his continual slaughtering of mice. They are representative of those incapable of defending themselves against opposing physical assault, and Steinbeck uses them as the doomed victims of Lennie’s incredible strength. Moreover, Lennie’s confession of unintentional killing advocates the idea that human impulse drives the powerful to exploit the weak, whether purposefully or involuntarily. However, as defenseless as the mice may be when facing Lennie’s prodigious strength, Steinbeck’s paramount purpose for Lennie is not for him to be seen as dominant and assertive, rather, he is to ultimately fall victim to something yet more potent than physical strength - cognitive and hierarchical supremacy. Being a mentally challenged, lowly itinerant ranch worker, Lennie is patronized and seen as inferior when glimpsed by Curley, son of the ranch’s boss. Sensing Lennie’s inability to protect himself, Curley immediately jumps on the opportunity to fulfill his insatiable hunger for eminence on the ranch. Steinbeck
Through utilization of the character Lennie Small, John Steinbeck exhibits the susceptibility of the weak to be preyed upon by those with power in his novella Of Mice and Men. Lennie, an ungainly, childlike migrant ranch worker in Soledad, California, harbors a mild mental disability. Owing to this lack of intellectual capacity, Lennie subsists utterly on the counsel and aegis fellow nomadic ranch worker George Milton provides. Blatantly naive and gentle, Lennie is nevertheless oblivious to the capability of the physical strength he possesses and the subsequent incidents it provokes. Steinbeck first wields Lennie as a character of superiority by allowing him to impose the power of his remarkable physical strength …show more content…
. .] they [are] so little. [I] pet 'em, and pretty soon they [bite] my fingers and I [pinch] their heads a little and then they [are] dead - because they [are] so little’”(Steinbeck 9). Lennie’s insistence on calling the mice “little” stresses the importance of physical weakness associated with his continual slaughtering of mice. They are representative of those incapable of defending themselves against opposing physical assault, and Steinbeck uses them as the doomed victims of Lennie’s incredible strength. Moreover, Lennie’s confession of unintentional killing advocates the idea that human impulse drives the powerful to exploit the weak, whether purposefully or involuntarily. However, as defenseless as the mice may be when facing Lennie’s prodigious strength, Steinbeck’s paramount purpose for Lennie is not for him to be seen as dominant and assertive, rather, he is to ultimately fall victim to something yet more potent than physical strength - cognitive and hierarchical supremacy. Being a mentally challenged, lowly itinerant ranch worker, Lennie is patronized and seen as inferior when glimpsed by Curley, son of the ranch’s boss. Sensing Lennie’s inability to protect himself, Curley immediately jumps on the opportunity to fulfill his insatiable hunger for eminence on the ranch. Steinbeck