Julianna Hale
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
Read book one by Oct. 6
Post by Oct. 6
Hi Griselda,
As I was reading section 2 (pgs. 17-37) I agreed with you that another them in the book was anger. George stands up for who and what he believes in. He says to the boss, "No, he ain't [much of a talker], but he's sure as hell of a good worker. Strong as a bull (22). George doesn't want Lennie to talk to anyone in fear of him saying something wrong and getting them into trouble. He cares for Lennie. I was also wondering, what do you think are some possible reasons why Lennie might act the way he does. When they were at the brush, he was carrying around the dead mouse because he wanted to pet it, but why? Do you think he could just be mentally retarded, Down Syndrome and they didn't know about it back in the 1920s, or autism which they also didn't know about. They understood the symptoms and signs of autism back in the 1900s but the term wasn't actually used until the 1940s; 20 years after the book took place (http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/history-of-autism). I think that you are right when you mentioned that intimidation was a theme in the novel but I think that a bigger theme was race. The "nigger" had his own living quarters. Also the old swamper said, "give the stable buck hell, too...Sure. Ya see the stable buck's a nigger" (19-20). If this were to take place in our era, the African-American wouldn't have his own room and it wouldn't matter what race he was. Also, people wouldn't "give each other hell" if they were black or not.
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