The Character: Lennie Small
In the Novella, Lennie is a childlike and harmless giant. He has a childlike innocence and isn’t too aware of what’s right and what’s wrong. Lennie is a lot like a child, as he needs someone to take care of him – he is dependent on George. Lennie is very apologetic towards George and follows whatever George says in the novella, such as when George was telling Slim the time when he told Lennie to jump into the Sacramento River, and Lennie did it. Most of Lennie’s actions are instinctive or obedient rather than thought through – he only partially aware of his role in things. Lennie very clearly doesn’t know his own strength – such as how he killed the mouse, the puppy and Curley’s wife. George always has to tell him what to do – like George was the one who told Lennie to defend himself against Curley.
At the beginning of the novella, Lennie very clearly does not learn from his past experiences/mistakes, for example at the beginning when Lennie drinks from the lake with big gulps, George has told him before not to drink like that as he’ll get sick, however Lennie still does it. But near the end of the novella, Lennie begins to show that he did in fact learn from what George has told him, as when he goes to the pool he drinks from the pool, ‘barely touching his lips to the water’.
For Lennie, the dream is the most important thing. In the novella Lennie constantly speaks of the rabbits with passion and excitement which show how important the dream was to Lennie. Lennie constantly asks George to repeat the story of the dream for them, and it is almost like he knows everything off by heart because he’s heard it so many times.
Lennie plays an important part in George’s life. Lennie allows George to hold onto the notion that his life could be different. Lennie is someone that George can talk to without having to worry about it being told to anyone. Lennie is someone that makes George different to every other ranch worker, because George wasn’t alone.
“Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.”