Theme: Outsiders / how somebody is different from society.
In the novel “Of Mice and Men” By author John Steinbeck, portrays two men who are trying to make their way in the world and live the American dream.
1. What is normal society in this text?
Normal society in the novel “Of Mice and Men” are the workers on the ranch where George and Lennie decide to work and try to make their way in life by trying to make enough money to live the American dream and buy their own home and land.
Lennie is a big strong guy that is mentally handicapped and doesn’t know how to take care of himself, which leaves George to take care of him after he had promised their aunt that he would take care of Lennie. 2. How is the character you are looking at an outsider/different to society?
Lennie is a really strong man that is really dumb but is also the nicest guy you could meet according to the book, the way that Lennie is different to society is that he is extremely dumb, one incident that showed his stupidity was when George and Lennie were visiting “weed” and Lennie went up to a little girl who was wearing a bright dress and decided to touch it. Lennie scared the little girl and she began to scream which scared Lennie, who in turn was too afraid to let go even whilst George was attacking him, trying to make him let go of the dress. Lennie didn’t mean to scare the girl but because he is so dumb he didn’t realize that it is not okay to go up to strangers and touch their clothes. 3. What is the person/character like?
Lennie is an extremely nice bloke, who is really really strong but is also extremely dumb.
A quote that can show how Lennie can be a nuisance to the other main character in the novel (George) is ‘Well, we ain't got any,' George exploded.’whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble....An' whatta I got,' George went on furiously. 'I got you! You can't keep a job and you lose me ever' job I get. Jus' keep me shovin' all over the country all the time. An' that ain't the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out.’ Another problem of Lennie’s includes that he doesn’t know how to differentiate between right and wrong which leads to his downfall in the end. 4. How does the character affect being on the outside/how they react to being on the outside.
Lennie doesn’t really react to being the outsider on the ranch because he doesn’t realize what is going on around the ranch most of the time.