Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck in the 1930s set in the great depression symbolizes and shows many challenges faced by the characters in the story. This essay will be discussing the challenges faced by Lennie and how they helped us to get a better understanding of him and this is shown through ideas such as: the mental challenges he faces, his reliance/ dependency on George, and his uncontrollable amount of strength. Not only do these ideas show the challenges faced by Lennie they also give us a deeper understanding of the other characters.
We can see from very early on in the text that Lennie is mentally challenged. They have had to migrate from Weed to Soledad after Lennie touched a girls dress because he like soft things and then he was accused of rape. He is also described early on as being “shapeless of face” along with “dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. This gives the reader the impression that Lennie is not the sharpest person out and still has many childish traits. As the text goes on we are told he has a mental disability and are shown by the way he talks with improper sentences. We can see that he is also easily manipulated by the other characters such as Curley’s wife due to his lack of intelligence which in turn gets him into trouble.
Secondly Lennie is extremely reliant on George. Once again we can see this from very early on when they are walking to the ranch and Lennie says to George “ I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you” when in reality Lennie is dependent on George. Once they arrive at the ranch they go to see the boss and George has told Lennie not to say anything as he doesn’t want him to say the wrong thing. Over the course of the novel we can clearly see that Lennie relies on George because whenever he does something wrong he always apologizes to George like he is his master. Although Lenie is dependent on George, George also needs him through quotes such as “ it’s nice to go around with someone you know” and “ guys like us who work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world”. This shows that even though lennie is depending on george it is also good for george to have someone there as a friend so he doesn’t get lonely like some of the other characters like crooks who says to lennie’s “ a guy goes nuts if he got nobody”.
Lastly Lennie is extremely big and strong and this can sometimes have dangerous consequences. The day they arrive at the ranch Curley comes into the bunk room to see them and Lennie is laughing and Curley thinks he is laughing at him and proceeds to hit Lennie. As discussed in the previous paragraph lennie is reliant on george and he waits for george to tell him he can fight back which when he does he catches Curley’s hand and leaves him “flopping like a fish and his closed fist in lennie’s hand”. Lennie’s strength causes him to break Curley’s hand and he knows he’s done something wrong and says to george ‘’ i can still tend to the rabbits,george?”. This shows that if he does not control his strength he can have serious consequences. At the end of the book Lennie was in the barn and Curley’s wife walked in and started chatting up Lennie. She let Lennie touch her hair because he loves soft things and he ended up getting it tangled which she did not like. She tried to pull away but because of his overpowering strength he held onto her tighter and tighter and he ended up breaking her neck and killing her. After he realizes what he has done he says “ i done a bad thing” and remembers George told him to go to the spot they camped out at if he ever got into trouble. Once Curley found out they all set out to find him with George killing him because he knows that if they find him they will tourture him. This shows that due to his strength he had to face the ultimate consequence of death.
The purpose of this essay was to show at least one challenge faced by Lennie in the text and explain how this helped us to understand him. I showed this through the mental challenges he faces, his reliance/ dependency on George, and his uncontrollable amount of strength. Each one of these ideas show us a different challenge he faced but also gives us a greater understanding of him as a character.
Kia ora english - welcome to Studyit!
Which question are you responding to here?
Describe atleast one challenge faced by a character or individual in the written text
Explain how this challenge helped you to understand the character or individual
could I please get a grade on this
Hi english
You address the question well in the intro, although try to make a specific comment about both parts of the question - you name some specific challenges faced by Lennie, and say it helps us understand him - maybe be specific about WHAT it helps us understand about him “This helps us get a better understanding that he is…”
Try to stay on topic - paragraph two it is a little unclear what the challenge is.
You need to work on building more purpose in - what is Steinbeck trying to do in each part, what ideas is he highlighting - try to use his name in every para to help you stay on track.
Would be an A as it is - feel free to make those changes and resubmit 
Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck in the 1930s set in the great depression symbolizes and shows many challenges faced by the characters in the story. This essay will be discussing the challenges faced by Lennie and how they helped us to get a better understanding of him and this is shown through ideas such as: the mental challenges he faces, his reliance/ dependency on George, and his uncontrollable amount of strength. Not only do these ideas show the challenges faced by Lennie they also give us a deeper understanding of the other characters.
We can see from very early on in the text that Lennie is mentally challenged. They have had to migrate from Weed to Soledad after Lennie touched a girls dress because he like soft things and then he was accused of rape. He is also described early on as being “shapeless of face” along with “dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. This gives the reader the impression that Lennie is not the sharpest person out and still has many childish traits. As the text goes on we are told he has a mental disability and are shown by the way he talks with improper sentences. We can see that he is also easily manipulated by the other characters such as Curley’s wife due to his lack of intelligence which inturn gets him into trouble. This gives us a much clearer understanding of some of the things he does due to his mental illness and why if people take advantage of you and or find your weaknesses especially if your dissabled and how people like that see things compared to us.
Secondly Lennie is extremely reliant on George. Due to his disability and lack of social awareness and “people skills’ 'Lennie is challenged by the ranch and relies on george. Steinbeck is trying to show to us that if you are heavily reliant on others when you come across challenges on your own you may not be able to fend for yourself and this is exactly what has happened to Lennie in this case. Once again we can see this from very early on when they are walking to the ranch and Lennie says to George “ I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you” when in reality Lennie is dependent on George. Once they arrive at the ranch they go to see the boss and George has told Lennie not to say anything as he doesn’t want him to say the wrong thing. Over the course of the novel we can clearly see that Lennie relies on George because whenever he does something wrong he always apologizes to George like he is his master. Although Lenie is dependent on George, George also needs him through quotes such as “ it’s nice to go around with someone you know” and “ guys like us who work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world”. This shows that even though lennie is depending on george it is also good for george to have someone there as a friend so he doesn’t get lonely like some of the other characters like crooks who says to lennie’s “ a guy goes nuts if he got nobody”. Through the use of these quotes and actions shown by lennie Steinbeck helps us as readers to understand Lennie more as a character and his dependence on george
Lastly Lennie is extremely big and strong and this can sometimes have dangerous consequences. The day they arrive at the ranch Curley comes into the bunk room to see them and Lennie is laughing and Curley thinks he is laughing at him and proceeds to hit Lennie. As discussed in the previous paragraph lennie is reliant on george and he waits for george to tell him he can fight back which when he does he catches Curley’s hand and leaves him “flopping like a fish and his closed fist in lennie’s hand”. Lennie’s strength causes him to break Curley’s hand and he knows he’s done something wrong and says to george ‘’ i can still tend to the rabbits,george?”. This shows that if he does not control his strength he can have serious consequences. At the end of the book Lennie was in the barn and Curley’s wife walked in and started chatting up Lennie. She let Lennie touch her hair because he loves soft things and he ended up getting it tangled which she did not like. She tried to pull away but because of his overpowering strength he held onto her tighter and tighter and he ended up breaking her neck and killing her. After he realizes what he has done he says’ ’ i done a bad thing” and remembers George told him to go to the spot they camped out at if he ever got into trouble. Once Curley found out they all set out to find him with George killing him because he knows that if they find him they will tourture him. This shows that due to his strength he had to face the ultimate consequence of death. Steinbeck shows through his super strength that with a lack of intelligence and control of your own abilities it may lead you to do things with bad bad consequences which in this case for Lennie was death.
The purpose of this essay was to show at least one challenge faced by Lennie in the text and explain how this helped us to understand him. I showed this through the mental challenges he faces, his reliance/ dependency on George, and his uncontrollable amount of strength. Each one of these ideas show us a different challenge he faced but also gives us a greater understanding of him as a character.
Much stronger overall - remember, if you read over your essay tomorrow and realise you nee to add some of these things, you can do an asterisk and add stuff in, just like what you have done here!
Good luck tomorrow - you are clearly well prepared and will do great