Of Mice and Men Essay

In the novella, Of Mice And Men, by John Steinbeck tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small. These two men are migrant workers who are traveling through California in a time where the Great Depression had started. George and Lennie are struggling to survive during the Great Depression while working in a ranch in Soledad in order to reach their dreams in owning a piece of land.The central conflict in Of Mice and Men is character vs. self because Lennie struggles to survive with his own mental disability that he was born with.

In the book, Of Mice and men Lennie’s illness is affecting himself because he can’t think for his own actions.

“Well, he seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like he is, he wants to touch ever’thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he hold on ‘cause that’s the only thing he think to do. Well, this girl squawks and squawks, I was jus’ a little bit off, and i heard all the yellin’, so i comes running, an’ by that times Lennie’s so scared all he can think to do is jus’ hold on.” (41)

Lennie is a kind of person that would easily get so scared because of his own illness he doesn’t know what to do. Lennie panicked and doesn’t understand what he is suppose to do when the girl in the dress is screaming. When Lennie was in that situation George has to step in and help Lennie and tell him what to do and even to rescue him.

Furthermore, the book states,” I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says,  “Jump in.’ An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him. An’ he was so damn nice to me for pullin’ him out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in.(40)    

When George tells Lennie what to do, Lennie does what George is told. George told Lennie to jump in the river, Lennie didn’t know that he couldn’t swim so he jumped in which resulted in Lennie almost drowning and George having to save Lennie.

Lennie’s illness is causing him to forget things, especially when George tells Lennie important things.

    Lennie looked timidly over to him. “George?”
    “Yeah, what ya want?”
    “Where we goin’ George?”
The little man jerked down to the brim of his hat and scowled over at Lennie. “So you forgot that awready, did you? I gotta tell you again, do I? Jesus Christ, you’re a crazy bastard!”
    “I forgot,” Lennie said softly. “I tried not to forget. Honest to Got I did, George.”(4)

It is difficult for Lennie to remember everything because of his illness. George has to do a job of reminding him what he said because Lennie doesn’t know what he is doing. Lennie struggles to remember what George tells him. Lennie tries to remember but because of his mental disability it shortens his memory.

After all the trouble that Lennie caused it resulted to Lennie’s hallucination, where he thinks he sees his dead aunt, and proceeds to have an argument with himself.

“And then on from out of Lennie’s head there came a little fat old woman. She wore thick bull’s-eye glasses and she wore a huge gingham apron with pockets, and she was starched and clean. She stood in front of Lennie and put her hands on her hips, and she frowned disapprovingly at him. And when she spoke, it was in Lennie’s voice. “I tol’ you an tol’ you,” she said. “I tol’ you, ‘Min’ George because he’s such a nice fella an’ good to you.’ But you don’t never take no care. You do bad things”(100-101)

    Lennie’s mental disability makes it impossible for Lennie to take care of himself. George steps in and decides to help Lennie by helping him to remember important things he needs to remember or know, He also helps Lennie by keeping him out of trouble so that both of then can still work in the ranch in order to reach their dreams in owning a piece of land together. After the troubles that Lennie did he starts to hallucinate and fight with himself, because George is constantly telling what Lennie needs to watch out more. Lennie feels that he needs to be aware but he also over does the awareness . Lennie tries to be careful but ends up turning bad , and messed up terribly. As he starts to hallucinate he felt as if he tried his best to be careful and that it wasn’t his fault for messing up.   
    Overall,  in the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Lennie struggles to survive with his own mental illness that he was born with. Lennie’s mental disability causes him to struggle to be a normal person, because he is unable to control himself and remember things which resulted of him fighting with himself.