Of Mice and Men
Prompt #15 · Of Mice and Men
Prompt Type: Character Arc
Lennie remains childlike and unchanged throughout the novel, yet our understanding of his danger evolves from mice to puppy to human victim. Analyze how Steinbeck uses the contrast between Lennie's static innocence and his escalating violence to create tragic inevitability. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“They was so little,” he said, apologetically. “I’d pet ’em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead—because they was so little.”
Chapter 1
Argument
Early in the novel, this quote establishes Lennie's baseline innocence—he apologetically explains killing mice through petting, demonstrating his childlike inability to understand his own strength while revealing the pattern of accidental violence that will escalate throughout the narrative.
Quote 2
“And she continued to struggle, and her eyes were wild with terror. He shook her then, and he was angry with her. "Don’t you go yellin’," he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.”
Chapter 5
Argument
At the climactic turning point, Steinbeck's simile 'her body flopped like a fish' contrasts Lennie's unchanged innocent intention ('Don't you go yellin'') with the horrifying escalation from mice to human victim, crystallizing the tragic gap between his static mental state and his escalating destructive capacity.
Quote 3
“And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger.”
Chapter 6
Argument
In the final resolution, the juxtaposition of George's shaking hand against his steadied resolve captures the tragic inevitability—Lennie's unchanging innocence has made his death necessary, completing the arc from mice to puppy to Curley's wife with the ultimate human victim being Lennie himself.
Quote 4
“And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young.”
Chapter 5
Argument
After Lennie's final act of violence, Steinbeck's imagery transforms Curley's wife into innocence itself—'very pretty and simple' with a 'sweet and young' face—creating tragic irony as the victim's restored innocence mirrors Lennie's unchanging childlike state, emphasizing that his static nature has destroyed someone equally innocent.
Quote 5
“Guy don’t need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus’ works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain’t hardly ever a nice fella.”
Chapter 3
Argument
Slim's observation that lacking sense can make someone 'a nice fella' encapsulates the novel's central paradox—Lennie's mental limitations preserve his innocence while simultaneously preventing him from learning from the escalating pattern of violence, establishing the tragic gap between goodness and danger that makes his fate inevitable.