Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws.
Chapter 1 · Narrator
Context
Immediately following George's portrait, the narrator describes Lennie as the two men enter the clearing together.
Analysis
The ursine simile positions Lennie outside human social taxonomy, locating him in a zoological rather than ethical category, while the negative-construction 'His arms did not swing at his sides' defines him by what he fails to do—the unmarked behaviors of normal human ambulation are violated by their absence. Steinbeck's naturalist framing implies that character is biological destiny rather than moral failing, which complicates any straightforward reading of Lennie's later violence as culpable.
How to Use in Essay
Argue that Steinbeck's animal similes for Lennie (bear, terrier, horse) constitute a systematic dehumanization that paradoxically protects him from moral judgment—this passage demonstrates how the comparative bestiary works to place Lennie outside the framework of guilt the novella otherwise enforces.