After finishing the book, I never thought to even consider that it could be an allegory for the “dumb, clumsy but strong mass of humanity and its shrewd manipulation,” but this makes sense since Lennie was only half accepted by the characters, including George. The world during the 1930s and 1940s was only just beginning to accept mentally disabled individuals and this reluctance was evident whenever George would mention that “…if I was alone I could live so easy,” (11) but he would make up for his harsh words afterwards by talking about rabbits because he knew that Lennie was stronger than him and could sway George’s opinion easily. Crooks even played with Lennie’s innocence almost for his own pleasure to make up for the discrimination he
