Similarities Between Lennie In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In the novella Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck puts most of the main characters in a powerless position. They all have something that makes them less powerful and easier targets for bad things to happen to them. They are all in some way powerless, but each of their reasons for being powerless is very different. In each of their lifetimes, there have been circumstances that make them more vulnerable to obstacles thrown at them in the novella. Lennie, who is one of the more obvious characters, is physically unquestionably strong and sturdy. What Lennie lacks is the mental power due to his intellectual disability. Lennie tends to act like a child, therefore, he is powerless to his desires that sabotages him in the end. Lennie knows what is honest and what is dishonest, but he lacks the mental capacity that would stop him from unintentionally doing the wrong thing. Lennie tends to subconsciously freeze when he is terrified of getting in trouble and causing distress to George. Lennie always has to rely on George for help, and since George cannot be at Lennie’s side every waking minute, Lennie is sometimes misled and gets into trouble with others. …show more content…
He is the only black man on the entire farm. To make matters worse, none of the white men want him around and refuse to share a cabin with him. He is even threatened by Curley’s wife, who in the novella, is extremely powerless because she is basically owned by her husband. This makes Crooks even more defenseless and starts to believe himself that he is unimportant. Lennie and Crooks can relate easily to each other because they are both stuck in their own world. They are both outcasts and Crooks is by himself 24/7 because the other men want nothing to do with him. He is stuck all alone in his own world doing the exact same thing every day and talking to no