How is Lennie discriminated against due to his disability in Of Mice and Men?
My text may be different in reference to page numbers so I will provide chapter numbers and approximate placement in that chapter of quoted sections.
Lennie is the simple minded friend of George. They are the two main characters of Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men . They are...
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traveling together through California as migrant farm workers. In today's terms, Lennie would probably be referred to as mentally challenged and would have been in special education classes. Unfortunately those labels and resources were not available in 1930's California. Instead, Lennie is referred to as "not bright," "dumb as hell," "a cuckoo," "crazy as a wedge," and "nuts." Because of his disability Lennie is indeed the victim of discrimination.
Even though he is Lennie's best friend George is guilty of discriminating against the big man. In chapter one George urges Lennie to be quiet when they meet the boss at the ranch where they are going to work. Midway through the chapter George says,
“That ranch we’re goin’ to is right down there about a quarter mile. We’re gonna go in an’ see the boss. Now, look—I’ll give him the work tickets, but you ain’t gonna say a word. You jus’ stand there and don’t say nothing. If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won’t get no job, but if he sees ya work before he hears ya talk, we’re set. Ya got that?”
George is afraid Lennie will say something that will lose them the job since Lennie has a history of getting into trouble and costing them employment. In chapter two, after Lennie forgets George's orders and speaks out in the presence of the boss, George chastises him:
“So you wasn’t gonna say a word. You was gonna leave your big flapper shut and leave me do the talkin’. Damn near lost us the job...Yeah, you forgot. You always forget, an’ I got to talk you out of it.” He sat down heavily on the bunk. “Now he’s got his eye on us. Now we got to be careful and not make no slips. You keep your big flapper shut after this.”
Another example of George discriminating against Lennie is revealed in the beginning of chapter three when George is talking to Slim. George admits that he liked to make fun of Lennie in order to make himself look smarter, even in an incident that could have cost Lennie his life. Toward the beginning of the chapter George relates this incident:
“Funny,” said George. “I used to have a hell of a lot of fun with ‘im. Used to play jokes on ‘im ‘cause he was too dumb to take care of ‘imself. But he was too dumb even to know he had a joke played on him. I had fun. Made me seem God damn smart alongside of him. Why he’d do any damn thing I tol’ him. If I tol’ him to walk over a cliff, over he’d go. That wasn’t so damn much fun after a while. He never got mad about it, neither. I’ve beat the hell outa him, and he coulda bust every bone in my body jus’ with his han’s, but he never lifted a finger against me.” George’s voice was taking on the tone of confession. “Tell you what made me stop that. One day a bunch of guys was standin’ around up on the Sacramento River. I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says, ‘Jump in.’ An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him. An’ he was so damn nice to me for pullin’ him out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in. Well, I ain’t done nothing like that no more.”
Although these examples show how Lennie is discriminated against because of his mental disability he is also a victim in other ways. At the end of chapter three Curley, upset about not finding his wife, and the subject of ridicule from the other men, picks on Lennie because of Lennie's size. In the middle of chapter two, Candy explains Curley's strategy:
“Never did seem right to me. S’pose Curley jumps a big guy an’ licks him. Ever’body says what a game guy Curley is. And s’pose he does the same thing and gets licked. Then ever’body says the big guy oughtta pick somebody his own size, and maybe they gang up on the big guy. Never did seem right to me. Seems like Curley ain’t givin’ nobody a chance.”
Of course when they do fight, Lennie breaks Curley's hand, which ultimately leads to Lennie's demise because at the end of the book Curley is out for revenge not only for his wife's death but also because of the beating he took at the hands of the big man.
In chapter four, Crooks too plays on Lennie's disability by suggesting that George has ditched the big man and won't return from town. He torments Lennie by saying:
“I said s’pose George went into town tonight and you never heard of him no more...Well, s’pose, jus’ s’pose he don’t come back. What’ll you do then?”
Later Crooks reinforces the idea of Lennie's disability by telling Lennie what might happen if George abandons him:
“Want me ta tell ya what’ll happen? They’ll take ya to the booby hatch. They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog.”
Because Crooks is able to inflict some of the pain he has experienced onto Lennie he feels pretty good about himself and even offers to join the men in their dream of the farm. Eventually, however, he is defeated by Curley's wife's suggestion that she could get him lynched.
At the end of the book Lennie's disability finally costs him his life as George sees no other alternative than to shoot Lennie in an act of extreme mercy. Had George not killed Lennie the big man would have been the victim of a system he would not have understood without the possibility of a "not guilty by reason of insanity" plea.
How is Lennie marginalized in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men?
When George and Lennie arrive at the ranch, it soon becomes apparent to the other ranch hands that Lennie has an intellectual disability. George explains to Slim how the two of them function as a team and that he learned to become Lennie’s protector after formerly participating in mocking him as others did. Lennie’s extreme physical strength and his lack of awareness of its effect are among the things that set him apart. When Slim inquires in to the reasons the two men travel together, he gives voices to what the others have probably thought. Lennie’s intellectual disability is often interpreted as mental illness. George quickly corrects him.
“It jus’ seems kinda funny a cuckoo like him and a smart little guy like you travelin’ together.”
“He ain’t no cuckoo,” said George. “He’s dumb as hell, but he ain’t crazy.”
After Lenny injures Curley’s hand, the others develop a wary attitude. Candy recalls George’s warning from earlier in the day, saying,
Right this morning when Curley first lit into your fren’ you says, ‘He better not fool with Lennie if he knows what’s good for ’um.’ That’s jus’ what you says to me.
The others go into town for the night, but Lennie is left behind because George fears that he will get into more trouble. He seeks the company of Crooks, who is marginalized because he is black. Crooks tells Lennie to get out of his room; he does not want his company and says that he should go back to the bunkhouse.
“I ain’t wanted in the bunk house, and you ain’t wanted in my room.”
“Why ain’t you wanted?” Lennie asked.
“’Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black….”
Lennie flapped his big hands helplessly.
“Ever’body went into town,” he said. “Slim an’ George an’ ever’body. George says I gotta stay here an’ not get in no trouble.”
When he tries to explain to Crooks that he had been in the barn to see his puppy, the older man once again tries to send him away.
“Well, go see your pup, then. Don’t come in a place where you’re not wanted.”
Further Reading
How is Lennie marginalized in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men?
Lennie is marginalized in society on account of his learning disabilities. A grown man with the mental age of a child, Lennie is one of society's outcasts. Society in 1930s America didn't really understand disabilities all that well, and Lennie suffers from a general lack of comprehension among the people he encounters.
He and George are forced to leave the town of Weed after Lennie starts stroking a girl's dress. Lennie doesn't mean anything by it; he just likes stroking soft objects. But the girl is understandably shaken by the incident, and so it's time for Lennie and George to leave town before they get into any more trouble.
But the marginalization of Lennie continues after he and George wind up at the ranch. One day, Curley takes his frustration out on Lennie, picking on him because of his learning disabilities. Unfortunately for him, Lennie proceeds to crush his hand, leaving him in considerable pain. That Curley instinctively felt no compunction in picking on Lennie in the first place, however, indicates the lowly status that the disabled have in this society.
Tragically, Lennie's marginalization ultimately leads to his death. Once again, he doesn't know his strength, and after Curley's wife pulls away from Lennie after he starts stroking her hair, he inadvertently kills her. Lennie takes off and is hunted down by the local posse like he's some kind of wild animal. This is a further sign of his outsider status in this harsh, unforgiving society.
How is Crooks's character marginalized in Of Mice and Men?
Crooks, the negro stable worker, finds himself ostracized from the social circle of the other ranchworkers who are white. He is forced to remain in the barn and not live in the bunkhouse apart from the other men in the harness room with a bed like that of an animal--"a long box filled with straw." The other men do not enter this room, whose window is above a manure pile. When Lennie asks Crooks why he is not wanted in the bunkhouse, Crooks replies,
"'Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me."
This ostracism is something to which Crooks is not accustomed, either. For, as he tells Lennie, "I ain't a southern negro." His father had a chicken ranch, and as a boy he even played with white children...."And now there ain't a colored man on this ranch an' there's jus' one family in Soledad."
This terrible isolation of Crooks is what causes his cruelty to Lennie, underscoring what George has stated about the loners being "mean." Without human companionship with which to, as Crooks says, "measure" himself:
"I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick....He can't turn to some other buy and ast him whether it's right or not. He can't tell. He got nothing to measure by."
In his novella of socialist motifs about the socially and economically disenfranchised itinerant worker of the Great Depression, Crooks represents the quintessentially disenfranchised.
How is Crooks a lonely character in Of Mice and Men?
Alienated and isolated, Crooks is probably the most lonesome man on the ranch. Having been relegated to the stable with the mules, Crooks has no human contact in the evenings; he is not allowed to play cards with the other men nor share in their palaver in the bunkhouse.
Made hostile and defensive because of his isolation and the racial discrimination of the others, Crooks is immediately suspicious and on guard when Lenny approaches one night in Chapter Four:
"....You go on get outta my room. I ain't wanted in the bunk house, and you ain't wanted in my room."
Then, Crooks displays his cruelty, born of lonely despair. He suggests misfortune to Lennie,
"...suppose George went into town tonight and you never heard of him no more." Crooks pressed forward some kind of private victory....Crooks's face lighted with pleasure in his torture.
But, because of Lennie's childlike ingenuousness, Crooks relents in his torture, and speaks instead of his own torture:
....A guy set alone out here at night, maybe readin' books or thinkin' or stuff like that. Sometimes he get thinkin', an' he got nothing to tell him what's so an' what ain't so. Maybe if he sees somethin', he don't know whether it's right or not. He can't turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees it too. He can't tell. He got nothing to measure by...."
Crooks speaks of the necessity for the fraternity of men, the necessisty for having someone by whom one can measure oneself. Otherwise, one is terribly alone.
In Of Mice and Men, how is Lennie disenfranchised?
In Of Mice and Men, Lennie is disenfranchised. When he accidentally kills Curley's wife, Lennie has no rights when it comes to his side of the story. Lennie would never harm anyone intentionally. He is a gentle soul with a big heart. Lennie is mentally challenged. George is his only friend. Even though George gets frustrated with Lennie, he is only concerned with Lennie's well being. George realizes that Lennie will hang for killing Curley's wife. George realizes that Lennie will not get a fair trial.
Lennie is not capable of making good decisions. He panics. His anxiety gets the best of him. When Curley's wife screams and tries to get away, Lennie is only trying to quiet her. He is too strong for his own good. He accidentally breaks her neck:
With one hand over her face and the other at the back of her head, he shakes her. When he lays her on the ground, she is still and quiet. He has broken her neck. He realizes that she is dead and that he has done another bad thing.
Now, Lennie is as good as dead. Curley will have no mercy on him. Even though Lennie is mentally challenged, Curley will see that he hangs. Truly, Lennie will not have any rights to a fair trial. George realizes that Lennie will suffer by hanging. George would rather shoot Lennie himself than to see him treated as a criminal.