The Social Dimension of Mental Disability

 

by Maria Guilhermina Silva

The book, “Of Mice and Men” portrays the story of two rural workers and their journey working in different farms, meeting new people and last but not least showing the importance of  having people you can count on, when the whole world around you is depressing.

Out of what I have experienced and considering all the important issues the book talks about, I don’t think prejudice is strictly limited to isolated areas, furthermore I can comprehend that in environments in which people are not very well informed it is more likely for this to happen. Overall, I believe that there is not a place on earth in which judgements based on color, economic class, sexual orientation and etc. do not occur. Isolated areas like, for example, the farm in the book makes it easier due to the fact that most of the workers come from a very simple life and lack in education.

When it comes to Lennie and his mental disability it is very hard to know what line you can cross. Probably the place, time and their social/economic class that is shown on book turns the disability into a huge issue, because lennie has to work in order to stay alive, but as we have seen in the book he is not able to live on his own (he needs constant support from George) . There aren’t many ways to deal with the events, giving that nobody even recognises or knows anything about people with mental disability.

The setting of the book is in the middle of nowhere and everybody, even the owners of the farm are very close minded. I was very surprised and anguished about the fact that there was nothing anybody could do about the situation, unless lennie understood how to manage certain emotions (there is not a cure of the problems he has, but having someone that understands about it makes a huge difference). The more I discuss about this topic the less I turn to a conclusion or a solution. Lennie needs to be looked after and there is no one who can give him what he needs (all the time).  My biggest question facing the book was if Lennie’s death was the only option, facing the harsh, depressed world in the novel.

All in all, prejudice comes in many ways and like I pointed, there isn’t a specific place that it happens, just ways we can try to lower the numbers.

Is having a dream better alone?

by Beatriz Mafra Kohatsu

 

The book Of Mice and Men is about two long term friends working together in different farms  around the countryside of America and as it can be presumed, the American dream is what they seek, such as any other worker. During the whole book, Lennie asks for George to tell about the farm they want to buy, that is the way of comfort he gets, this fantasy of their own farm, with their own animals and possessions was their dream.

The story passes during a time called Great Depression, which means not an optimistic period. Even during those times, it can be seen the two really want their farm, since even before the story itself begins, when they were in other farms, they had this plan.

The story begins with them running from the last farm they worked in Weed and looking for a job, that they end up getting it in a farm in Soledad. This is part of the plan they had to buy a farm, for Lennie a big guy, with a “child’s mind”,  it would be his dream coming true for different reasons than George, he wants it, so he could have rabbits, and other animals, since he has a thing for petting soft animals, that causes them trouble during some time of the book. For George it has more mature reasons as any other person would want a farm for.

George is the brain of the duo, so the whole plan is made by him. He takes care of his friend and even though they both work in the farm, George is the one who gets them jobs and makes it possible for them to have a decent living.

In one point in the book they actually get all the money needed to buy the farm and the narrator says during this point “This thing they had never really believed in was coming true”, this is because this type of dreams are those we really want to come true from deep in our hearts, but our rational half knows it’s unrealistic, and may never happen.

Everyone has dreams and depending on what they are, it’s possible for them to come true, for this to happen some kind of strategy is required, it’s believed for some people that telling what you want is not good, because whatever no one knows, no one destroys, since they don’t know about it. On the other hand, if someone who’s worth your trust, such as Lennie and George, they have each other to rely on and make their dream come true together.

Their dream is interrupted by an accident that happened due to Lennie’s obsession  for petting things and his childish and innocent way of acting that caused trouble even unwillingly.

 

 

Men and the natural world

by Ravi Silva

There is a before and an after to the book “Of Mice and Men”. Of Mice and Men is a novella published in 1937, and it shows the struggle that two friends, George and Lennie, have on their working life on the West of the USA, more precisely, in California.

The theme, natural world, is very recurrent. Lennie loves animals. Candy’s dog has an important role on the narrative. People often refer to Lennie and Crooks as if they were animals (even though every human is). The farm where the characters work has a lot of acres of plantation, demonstrating that men has dominated nature, and used to it’s favors.

The nature is used to do foreshadowing as well. The same way that Lennie (constantly) kills animals, like rats and puppies, is how he kills Curley’s wife: by breaking the neck. And as Carlson kills Candy’s old dog, Lennie is shot too.

Farming is also important to the narrative. See what Wikipedia has to say about the early 20th Century in the USA:

 “The number of farms tripled from 2.0 million in 1860 to 6.0 million in 1905. The number of people living on farms grew from about 10 million in 1860 to 22 million in 1880 to 31 million in 1905. The value of farms soared from $8.0 billion in 1860 to $30 billion in 1906.”

George and Lennie have always worked in farms, and they expect to always do that. Their dream is to buy themselves a farm; George thinks about the income, while Lennie wants to pet the rabbits. Their lives are rural, a common thing during the period that the author lived and wrote the book, where the majority of the population was rural.

The Reality of Dreams

by Raphael Dapalma

One of the main ideas present in “Of Mice and Men” is the American Dream, as written in the Declaration of Independence “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. George and Lennie’s dream of owning a farm and living off the land, whilst having the freedom to work when they want and have a general liberty in their life is an example of the American dream. It’s something that keeps them going day to day, even “infecting” others around with an idea of hope. For example  Candy, Curley’s wife, and Crooks. Who after hearing the idea of the farm, think themselves of a better life where they can be free and live the American dream. Candy even goes far enough to actually try to turn this dream into a reality with George and Lennie. But is this dream ever truly possible? No, it isn’t for a large majority of people. The American dream is made to give hope in a better future, people like George and Lennie have nothing to look forward to besides working every day. Candy has nothing to look forward to besides working until he becomes useless to the farm and ends up struggling for a living for the rest of his life. This dream of someday having somewhere to settle down, where they can listen to the rain, or sit by the fire when it’s cold drinking hot chocolate, is something that keeps them moving. Something that gives them a reason to wake up and work every day. For some lucky ones, someday this dream will turn into a reality. Maybe someone like Curley’s wife could have become a Hollywood actress and had all the fancy clothes her heart desires. But only a few actually do, and the ones that do make this dream seem even more real. The whole concept of the American dream is to make America seem like a land of opportunity and hide the fact that it’s a land of futility.

Struggling and fighting through difficulties is part of the American dream and story. It is natural to face obstacles in the capitalist society and no matter your financial standings, you will have to fight and compete against others for what you want. In “Of Mice and Men” this is showcased through the struggles that people such as Candy have to face and live through to get what they need. The whole plan that Candy, George, and Lennie had to live on a farm finally seemed close because of the money Candy had saved up his whole life. Money that was given to him because he lost his hand. Yet through all these struggles he could finally get close to the American dream and have his own American story of success. To actually accomplish the American dream you will have to fight at some point in your life, that’s how the capitalist society is structured. Candy had to lose his hand working for them to actually become even slightly close to buying the land. Overcoming obstacles and struggling through an unjust society to have a slight chance of making your dreams a reality, is all part of the American dream and story.

The setting of the book could make it seem that these are all wishes and problems only present during the Great Depression. But problems such as equality, racism, and social hierarchy are still present in society today. Meaning the social issues presented in “Of Mice and Men” are still relevant, and probably will be for a very long time. One interesting thing to note is how the struggles of fitting in and the problems migrant workers have to face, are universal. Brazilian books such as “Vidas Secas” present similar problems to what is present in “Of Mice and Men”, especially the idea of dreaming something greater like the American dream. This makes the setting and story pretty universal, the plot could take place almost anywhere in the world while having historical accuracy. Though it is important to note that problems such as making it in an agricultural migrant town aren’t really present today thanks to the rural exodus increasing in the last few decades. Overall “Of Mice and Men” gives a very interesting insight to how the line of thought during the Great Depression was, and how these visions of America are still present in today’s society.

 

Weakness

by Lorena Utimura Latorre

 

            “Of mice and men” is a book by John Ernst Steinbeck, set in 1937 during the Great Depression. The story is about the relationship of George and Lennie, two friends who work in a ranch in the rural area of the USA.

In this article we’re going to talk about how the book shows and deal with the weak points of each character.

George and Lennie’s friendship is guided by the necessity of surviving, once they don’t have a family and a place to live. George is shorter than Lennie, but smarter; on the other hand, Lennie is very, very strong (physically) but has a mental problem, making George responsible for Lennie.

Both of them fear being alone and not having reasonable work, so they join forces to help each other, making them stronger. Because of the mental problem, Lennie doesn’t understand certain situations and doesn’t know how to overcome them, always in need of George’s help. But sometimes Lennie goes beyond the limits by injuring people and animals unconsciously. This makes the other characters assume he’s crazy and dumb.

However, the book also presents another kind of weakness, despite of the physical: the mental one. Dealing with circumstances of life of living in subordinate conditions, such as being black, having a mental disturbance, being a migrant worker or even being a woman (Curley’s wife) make’s everything harder. That’s why, even though they have “weak points” they always get stronger when are working around a problem. This way, the novel makes evident how having someone by your side in hard situations can turn them easier.

 

 

Isolation and its consequences

by Clara Malavasi

 

Isolation has different faces. For example, it is because of the ranch that the workers feel isolated – since it is a distant place, apart and far from the city and other groups of people. Those men sleep in bunkhouses, and coexist only among themselves, so they are isolated as a group. It gets lonely as you have just a few options of people to talk to.

As for Curley’s wife, she is isolated because of the era. The time the story takes place in a time of sexism where women often were forced to accept only what their husbands said, and that is why she is always left alone, isolated, even when surrounded by other people. In this case, as a wife of a terrible man, she can only talk to him, leaving her with no other option since she is living with only other men.

It is possible to explain Crooks’ isolation with this same detail of the story. He is the only black character, which makes the racial discrimination very obvious and explicit, since there is such a strong contrast between the way he is treated and the way that the white men are. He does not sleep in the same place as the other men, and is often pushed away because of his skin. His isolation also is his protection, because that keeps him from getting any trouble for no reason. There is no explanation for prejudice, it is violent and at that time it was even worse, so Crooks being kept away from that eventually protects him, even though he consequently gets lonely, deeply lonely, as is seen in his conversation with Lennie.

Isolation can be extremely harmful to people, but in some cases, it might be necessary. Of course, being isolated results in loneliness; and being away from other people for a long time can affect your mental health (which is clear in Crooks’s case), but maybe Lennie could’ve been safer if isolated. That makes his plan with George even better, since Lennie can’t live alone or be completely independent. During the book, you can find many examples of Lennie’s incapacities of living with other people; he hurts them, he scares them, and can’t even comprehend what he is doing. Maybe being around only George or only a few men could have resulted in less harm done.

Isolation can affect people in many different ways. It is almost completely unpredictable how every single person may react to it, and George refers to it as people “getting mean”. As it is seen in Crooks dialogue with Lennie, he’s somewhat rude to Lennie and acts aggressively when saying that George might not come back. Those who are isolated (even if surrounded by people) may get angry, nervous and actually mean because of the anger that might be created as a consequence. Curley’s wife is mean for no reason towards Crooks, and that’s because she is unhappy due to her isolation. Being surrounded by people does not mean you’re not lonely at all.

The two characters that were probably not isolated from beginning to end are Lennie and George. Physically, they are both isolated from the rest of the world besides the farm, but they have each other. As George murders Lennie, he dies with someone he loved. However, George, on the other hand, is lonely again after that – they were their own company, so they were not completely isolated. But as Lennie is dead, George falls back to be a lonely man again.

How difficult is it to have a true friendship?

by Cecília Consorte

When you are alone your work is better than when you are working with someone, you get more concentrated, and you suddenly finish your work faster, but it doesn’t happen with George (however he prefers to work alone) because he needs to take care of  Lennie all the time, he’s afraid of Lennie’s doing something wrong, but he needs to deal with him, so he adapts his way of work in a way that they can work together.

It seems difficult to George to learn how to work together with someone because Lennie is always doing some mistakes, and then George always gets angry or a little bit mad, but in the end, everything goes right. When George gets mad with Lennie, he gets sad too, because he knows that it isn’t’ totally Lennie’s fault when he does something wrong, but George always forgives him, he loves Lennie independently of what he does, even when they need to change their job because of some mistake that Lennie did.

Their friendship is reciprocal, not all the time obviously because it’s impossible to love someone all the time and have an amazing friendship with someone, you get tired of this person and there’s a moment that you can’t even look at this person’s face anymore, but Lennie loves George the same way that George loves Lennie. The way that they relate to each other is really rare because it seems like George (exclude) ignores the “bad things” about Lennie and continues to love him. For George, it’s easy to live and work without Lennie, but for Lennie it’s completely difficult, he depends on the care that is given to him by George, without this care, Lennie would be probably dead because of his mistakes and manslaughter, as he did with the woman and the two little animals.

Beyond George and Lennie’s friendship, we can find other affective ones, like Candy and his dog. His friend is not a human being but he means the same as a human friendship. Sometimes, animals are way better than humans. The other relations on the farm are a bit different if we compare them with the relationship of George and Lennie, or Candy and his dog. The farmers seem so distant from each other, but at the same time we know that if someone gets hurt or if something bad happens to someone, one person or the whole farm will help or take care of this person. I mean, they just don’t show this affective feeling that they have for each other, but they’re all together.

 

Is it possible to justify an act of violence?

by Thaís Ayumi

 

The book Of Mice and Men deals with violence. The story it is about two men, Lennie and George; the first one is a strong guy with a mentality of a child, and the second one is a smart man who takes care of Lennie. George usually helps Lennie to control his strength.

After you read a scene where Lennie is being violent you become anxious or nervous about the next scenes. But Lennie isn’t a bad person, he just cannot control his emotions, because usually, he is violent in moments of apex of some emotion, angry or love. He is not able to distinguish good or bad, so he just finds a way to express the indefinite feeling.

The ranch itself is a violent place; people are rude with each other too, to keep their positions on the ranch and to have some respect from others. And violence is accepted until the moment the person who was violated can’t work.

Lennie’s death can be considered an act of love from George, because George thought of Lennie’s future on that ranch, if he stayed there he would probably suffer more. George put an end to his friend’s suffering, so he would not have to suffer from guilt or blame others. It’s difficult to compare these murders in relation to violence because in Lennie’s case it was something unconscious in a way, he was caressing the woman and the puppy, and that feeling eventually made him kill them. But George killed someone consciously, for love, maybe. George lived with Lennie for a long time, so they were practically a family, their love was a brotherly love.

 

 

Violence and its perspectives in Of Mice and Men

by Luna Birelli Vicente e Souza

Violence is a very present theme through the narrative and there are many perspectives about it throughout the story.  The book has two protagonists, George and Lennie, who are friends and travel together. They share the same dreams (owning a barn with different animals) and hopes,  but are very opposite by character. Lennie is a strong, innocent guy and George is a witty, small man.

Lennie is an important point of the narrative, especially if we’re talking about violence. Many times, Lennie is portrayed as a big child, so I do believe that even though he performs violent acts, he’s not violent by character.  This character doesn’t count the facts, he does not see that his actions have consequences, in his understanding, it’s always the object of his affection that harms itself – he doesn’t understand himself as the cause. A good example would be when the puppy dies, he blames the pup, says is the puppy’s fault that he is not going to be able to tend the rabbits, but the puppy is dead because he kept him away from his mother and also petted so hard that probably broke the fragile bones of a not fully-developed dog.

The ranch is a completely violent environment, mentally and physically. This influences the people there, like Curley who has the desire for trouble and fight. The ranch is full of tension because you have to work hard to survive and stay there, so it’s always a competition of who can work better and produce more. This makes little mistakes into big fights.

I do believe that Lennie’s death is a loving act by George. My opinion can be seen as controversial, but I do believe it was the same situation as Candy’s dog, it was supposed to spare them from something. The dog’s case was to spare him from pain, he was also useless to the barn, this scene was just a foreshadow to the ending. Lennie’s case was a little different, because it was just a matter of time to someone, other than George, to kill him. George probably thought it was a better way to save Lennie, to keep him away from loneliness or pain. Also, Candy says he should have killed his dog, not somebody else, I think it’s the same for George, Lennie is his friend.

 

The American Social Hierarchy

by Marina Cartum

 

The book is a portrait of the American rural worker in the 20th century during The Great Depression. It has a lot of metaphors using the situations and the characters, mainly the two workers: George Milton, an intelligent but uneducated man, and Lennie Small, strong man and mentally disabled.

The story takes place inside a ranch, with its own hierarchy of social jobs, such as the boss (the owner of the farm), the cavalry men (normally the one that controls and lookout the workers), the field workers and the stable men.

It’s clear that the ranch’s universe apart from the city, with other rights, laws and respects, almost like a new political distribution, with power concentrated in the high class: the family that bought the land and paid the workers.

And as most of the groups, cultures and societies, inside the ranch they have their own conception of justice, that keeps an insuring security to almost everyone that lives there. But of course that it doesn’t have a structured form, but we can see the romanticized notion of justice in the character speeches, which shows their ideology, not only theirs, but all the Americans migrants, that had the same poor conditions and the same little access to education, health and human rights.

An example of that is when Lennie gets in a fight with the son’s boss, and destroys his hand, having an enormous strength. The son’s boss, Curley, had started to punch Lennie without motive, because he felt small next to him. George told Lennie that he could and he should fight back. Lennie, as a child, wouldn’t do anything if the others didn’t tell him so. That’s why George tells him that he could hurt Curley, because when a man, (and just a man deserves justice) is tricked he needs to take revenge himself by doing the same. But in the case of the only woman in the story, that is all the time being played and controlled, treated as a hooker, just for being a woman, there’s no justice for her. She is cast aside from this men’s world. Inside it she is a property, she is Curley’s thing. Also there is no justice for Crooks, the only black person in the book that happens to be the stable man. He is truly isolated from the rest of the ranch, living just inside the stable, because he was accused of being dirty and smelly.

The figure that represents justice is exactly the man who has a superior work in the ranch, that is Slim, the cavalry man. He is between the boss and the rural workers. In the situation, he is the one who solves the conflict without Lennie being kicked out, using his power he negotiated with Curley: if Curley doesn’t tell that Lennie broke his hand, Slim also wouldn’t tell that Curley lost a fight. We can see that the justice is formed based in your position in the hierarchy of the farm, which simulates the whole American structure.