Of mice and men by John Steinbeck Essay

â€Å"Studying stage Drama enables us to see into a world that is very different from our own and to feel compassion for those who are unable to take control of their own lives† â€Å"Of mice and men† By John Steinbeck is a very interesting and compelling text, and positions us as the reader to accept Lennie as the victim even though he killed someone, we as the reader are given many insights that some of the other characters do not get to experience, and therefore can get this message as the dominant reading. The earliest accounts of the life of Lennie and George tells us a tale about Lennie and his accidents involving mice, Lennie who gets presents of mice from his aunt, crushes there heads, because he doesn’t know his own strength, he loves the mice, and cared for them, but because of his love for the mice they bite him and he crushes the mouse’s heads, Lennie is definitely mentally retarded, and as such he does things that regular people would not do it would seem that Lennie’s mentality was not designed for his body, if he was a thin weedy man then he would have no problems, he could pet animals AND make them stay alive, but things aren’t always as we like them Because the playwright is trying to establish Lennie as â€Å"the good guy† we are also positioned at the scene of their last job, Lennie feels a ladies dress, the woman screams, he holds on, she starts yelling to the police, he holds, and as a result, poor George has to spend a night in a ditch and what was the reason? â€Å"I only did it to feel how soft it was† says Lennie, even though this is still fairly strange, you as the reader can relate to him and say well, it really isn’t his fault. Now I know you are wondering, â€Å"Why did Lennie hold on even through the screams and the yelling police, why didn’t he just let go?† consider this story, a young child between the ages of 1 and 3 is found near his dead mother, holding on for dear life, and mentally Lennie was much the same way whenever he gets scared or frightened, he will hold on to it, you cannot blame the woman for her reaction, a big tall man grabbing onto her dress, she has every right to feel threatened, and as a result, Lennie gets George into trouble, and they have to spend the night in the ditch. On the farm, curly is picking fights; not only is he picking fights but he is picking fights that he can’t win, apart from his height, what exactly did Lennie do? He laughed, oh no, dear God, how will he survive? George was going to teach him a lesson, but he wanted Lennie, this time he went too far, Lennie didn’t want to fight curly, but he gave him no choice, he was scared and frightened, and once again, the mentality issue shines brightly, he grabs Curly’s hand and he doesn’t let go, he crushes every single bone in his hand, and again Lennie is portrayed as the â€Å"good guy†, what else could he do? The final matter is the matter of Curly’s wife’s death, this even if he is retarded, still classifies as murder, no matter how much they try to sugar coat it, it is still murder, and he pays for it with his own death, he gave George, his best friend, no other choice other than to kill him for his own good, his strength, has been the cause of all these problems right from the beginning, and although you can feel sorry for him, he should have had more common sense, he was retarded, and there is nothing you can do about that, but he should have learnt what was right and appropriate, and killing innocent people, even if it was manslaughter, is still bad. And so we are given an insight into the life of Lennie, we feel compassion for him and George, we have been positioned to draw this conclusion, well, you’d be hard pressed to try and prove he wasn’t wouldn’t you? It seams there is two cases of murder (not counting the various animal deaths) George isn’t the bad guy because he did what was best for Lennie, and Lennie wasn’t the bad guy because he is retarded.