Of Mice and Men: Mental Limitations, Limit Life. Summary and Final Opinions.

     Throughout the course of a month and a half I've been putting up posts discussing the many deprivations presented to one with mental retardation using Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men as a prime example, specifically, the character Lennie Small. Through discussing the theme of mental limitations in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men with provided facts about mental retardation, I was hoping to raise awareness about the stigma against mentally retarded persons and how these factors affect their social quality of life. Together, we looked at the issues, in the story and in real life, of: direct and indirect prejudicial activities and their affects on the self-esteem and confidence of an individual with a MR; alienation and isolation and their ramifications on the amount of experience received by the mentally retarded individual; lack of self-determination and how this issue may result in situations where similar treatment may backfire.



George Milton holding Lennie Small dead, in his hands. Issues, especially poor treatment towards mentally retarded persons like Lennie, carry many ramifications.

      The issues stated above are the factors, related to mental retardation, which affected the outcome of the story. These factors, though in different situations, can be seen in the real world, as the issues we discovered in this book are indeed seen in modern society. Prejudicial attitudes, alienation, and lack of self-determination are being committed daily.

     I believe that Steinbeck included the character Lennie Small and the theme of mental disability in his novella, to mirror human civilization's own poor treatment of the mentally retarded. In fact, Steinbeck's style of grouping and mirroring disadvantageous individuals of the human population, into one character is evidently seen not only through the mentally retarded, but by other individuals. Other groups of people mirrored in Of Mice and Men include African Americans and the poor treatment of racism (Crooks), women and the poor treatment of sexism (Curley's wife), and the elderly and the poor treatment of ageism (Candy).

     Returning to my point, Steinbeck purposely added the character Lennie Small into the story to mirror man's treatment of mentally retarded persons, and make evident the ramifications of such negative actions. These ramifications are seen throughout the story in Lennie's numerous confrontations with the other characters in the novella, who represent the outside world, and in the unfortunate conclusion. Consequently, the results of the conflicts in Of Mice and Men affected both Lennie, who ends up buried somewhere in the Salinas Valley, and the other characters like George, who will live tortured with the fact that he murdered in his one and only best-friend.

     Steinbeck's unspoken message? The poor treatment towards mentally retarded persons is everlastingly prevalent and extremely tough to deal with for these individuals. These poor and uncalled for actions carry heavy ramifications to both the mentally retarded individual and society, and if they are not mitigated, these ramifications will be obvious to all of us.