How Steinbeck creates sympathy in Of Mice and Men Essay Example

"small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp strong features” suggesting he is like a mouse and lets us in on some visual imagery early on in the story as he tells us “Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose."

Whereas Steinbeck has stood him right next to his opposite who was completely on the other side of the scale. The Nobel prize winning author is a biographical writer to an extent as he has based some parts of this tale on his real life experience as he did actually know a Lennie in his life time that did have this disability and getting him into quite a bit of trouble as back in that day and age mental illnesses weren’t looked upon with any deeper meaning or thorough analysis as you were seen as slow or dumb.

I feel sympathy towards Lennie Small’s character because of his circumstance which prevents him from acting the maturity of his age and the type of maturity that is needed in this society and time he is living in. With such tragic events in time happening all around him in this particular moment of his life that is presented in the book his innocence was captured even more than I think it ever would be. Small is the fellow ranch worker of George Milton and long-time best friend by default and obligation being that Lennie is Mentally Handicapped and as a Favour to Lennie’s only lasting relative his dead aunt Clara George had promised to take care of him.

As it is obvious to

imagine Lennie can be a weighing burden to carry mentally and in some physical cases; he is a tall, powerful man (with an ironic surname) who sees life through the eyes and mind of a little child. Lennie has a fetish with nice feeling objects because he likes to touch and rub the textures of things he likes which resembles his child like qualities and obsessions but can also cause big problems for him later on in the novella.

Lennie often asks George repetitive questions, a commonly known one that comes up is him asking when they are going to move to the the house on the farm and when he is going to tend the rabbits but because of the financial wreck and poor living conditions they are in Lennie doesn’t understand that he has to go without at times. Steinbeck has Milton in the spotlight of a single parent trying to look after himself and Lennie which often leaves him releasing his stress onto Small in forms of anger and lashing out as you can see this early on in book when milton tells him how “Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want.

God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy”. Remembrance being one of the many problems Lennie struggles with it is not fair that he should be told how much he is holding someone back all the time as it is not his intentional fault, but as we delve deeper into the tale of the two ranch workers we soon learn that the barley bucker was no stranger to the use of selective hearing.