A Gentle Giant
By Chip Bouchard
If I said Lennie Small was a man of wisdom, quick thoughts and sharp, I would be lying. Lennie’s name is an irony in itself; Lennie Small? More like Lennie Large. Lennie is a very complex individual; he is one to be compared to a bear or a giant. Lennie is able-bodied, he lumbers around and does what he is told. In Of Mice and Men, although Lennie is a superb laborer, his lack of intelligence defeats the fact that he is an excellent worker. Lennie’s thoughts and actions are often compared to those of a young child. Lennie’s thoughts about George are expressed multiple times in the novel Of Mice and Men. “Lennie, who had been watching, imitated George exactly. He pushed ... himself back, drew up his knees, embraced them, looked over to George to see whether he had it just right. He pulled his hat down a littlemore over his eyes, the way George’s hat was.” (10).
Batman and Robin, Shrek and Donkey, Rocky and Bullwinkle, George and Lennie. Lennie was like a sidekick to George; what George lacked in, Lennie strived in, and the other way around, too. Lennie looks up to George like a son to his father. His loyalty to George is noticeable and the rest of the characters know it. “No… You tell it. It ain’t the same if I tell it. Go on… George. How I get to tend the rabbits.” (119).
"...and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws." (2). Lennie Small is a Gentle Giant, once who loves to pet mice, but due to his uncontrollable strength, he would crush and kill the mice. The same happens in chapter five to Curley’s wife. Trying to keep her from yelling, Lennie blocks her mouth and accidently snaps her neck.
Lennie is not the sharpest tool in the shed and he stutters quite a bit. George knows that something wrong could slip out of Lennie’s mouth, so tells him to just keep his mouth shut and let him (George) do the talking. When Lennie has an encounter with Curley’s wife, he cannot help but...