The Role Of Disabilities In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Pages: 4

The word “disabled” can be used in two different contexts, physical or mental. It is the inability to perform one or more natural activities-such as walking or seeing-because of illness, injury, born with or developed disability due to age (Langtree, Ian). Both types of impairments are utilized on the characters Candy, Crooks, and Lennie in the novel Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck's novel of George and Lennie's desire of owning their own farm, which they allow their co-workers in on, and the obstacles that stand in the way of that dream, reveal the major thematic topics of the novel, and Lennie, who makes George's ambition of owning a farm worthwhile, ironically becomes a substantial obstacle to obtaining this aspiration. Therefore, the characters Candy, Crooks, and Lennie deserve readers compassion because of their disabilities which hinders them from obtaining their wanted new life.
Candy, one of the characters that George lets in on their “secret
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Candy and Crooks both are physically disabled creating a more strenuous time to reach their ultimate goal that they share with Lennie and George, to obtain a farm. Lennie who is a mentally disabled, keeps the dream of the farm in their minds by constantly comparing his to be future job to conversation in the novel, basing his actions solely on his imagination. This gets him into a troubling situation that ends his life and approaching completion of his goal, the farm and a new life. As a result, this breaks Candy, Crooks, and George's spirits making the goal now unobtainable. The disabilities created for the characters personality and physical appearance makes the characters have an inability to perform at their highest level and categorized into a lesser being of an able-worker, thus causing problems for themselves and