Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner, John Steinbeck sets his 5th novel Of Mice
and Men in the turbulent times of the 1930s America. In this novella, Steinbeck
skillfully constructs the setting of ranch life as a microcosm of the American society in
Salinas California: Steinbeck’s hometown. From the outset of the novella, Steinbeck
introduces Lennie as a child-like character. As the novella is prolonged, however,
Lennie is cleverly used as a vehicle to present the symbol of fate and the notion of
dream.
Firstly, Lennie is presented as child-like. It is evident from the beginning of the
novel that he is not comprehensive of the most basic information but must repeatedly
remind himself of words from others. When George informs Lennie not to say
anything to the boss, Lennie “droned to himself softly.” It is notable here that the verb
“droned” connotes the repeated reminder from Lennie to himself, implying the great
effort that Lennie takes in to comprehend the information he’s given. The fact that he
had done it “softly” furthers his mentally retarded persona, which may alternatively
imply that he is concealing his clumsiness in order to avoid anger from George; he
does not want to displease George. This builds sympathy for Lennie from the
readers, since perhaps Steinbeck has used Lennie as a symbol of the mistreated
men to imply how hard and complex life was for men with mental disabilities in the
1930s America; it was so easy for them to get into trouble.
It is often understood that Lennie’s child-like nature tragically reflects the
symbol of fate. Towards the resolution of the novella, Lennie envisages a “gigantic
rabbit” calling him, which parallels with George calling him a “crazy bastard.”
Steinbeck may have deliberately arranged Lennie’s two most important friends
together to tell him off which accentuates the idea that Lennie deserves his fate
(death) due to the bad things he has done. This idea is further highlighted when
Lennie finally admits that he had “done another bad thing.” Perhaps Lennie had
finally learned to form a concept of good and bad. This could allude to the Christian
idea that “life is a lesson”. By failing to learn from killing multiple small animals,
Lennie inevitably kills Curley’s wife. Combine all together, these events therefore
could imply that Lennie deserves his fate of death. Steinbeck may be using Lennie
as a medium to challenge the whole American society that, since confidence level
were extremely high in the 1920s and part of the Americans grew more and more
arrogant, consequently the whole society had to endure a depression.
Apart from the symbol of fate, Steinbeck may had constructed Lennie to
reveal the role of dream in the life of ranch workers. In Of Mice and Men, it seems an
incontrovertible law of nature that dreams should go unfulfilled. Perhaps one of
Lennie’s role in the novella is to bring out Steinbeck’s belief that dreams are both a
source of happiness and a source of misery. When Lennie describes his dream of
owning a rabbit farm, he speaks “rhythmically as though he had said them many
times before”. The adverb “rhythmically” underscores the firm and proficient tone of
Lennie which could highlight Steinbeck’s idea that even the most predominantly
childish charter who always forget things, has a cherished dream ingrained in his
heart that he wishes to materialize. At the end of the novella, Steinbeck relentlessly
reveals that dreams can be as poisonous as they are beneficial. What George
discovers — and what Crooks already seems to know when he scornfully spurns
Candy’ offer to join him — is that dreams are too often merely an articulation of what
never can be. In such cases, dreams become a source of intense bitterness because
they seduce cynical men to believe in them and then mock those men for their
gullibility. Therefore, it is highly likely that Steinbeck’s may be warning the society
that even when our dreams seem just within reach, predictable problems can still
destroy them completely and lead us to depression.
All in all, Steinbeck has created a particularly meaningful character, Lennie, as
a prototype for those vulnerable individuals in the society. Such a dynamic character
embodies the notion of the inevitable fate as well as the duality of dream.
