Impairments In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men displays a lot of characters with a variety of impairments. These impairments help develop the characters and it tells us more about them. Some characters show physical impairments while others have mental impairments. In the beginning, the impairments may not be noticeable at first but as the story progresses, the impairments are easier to find. Many characters in the story have physical and mental impairments but the most obvious ones are George Milton, Lennie Small and Candy.
George Milton is the first character in Of Mice and Men that is introduced with an impairment.
“The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features”
(Steinbeck 2). George has restless eyes which
Usually, people who have restless eyes are not strong because they lack rest. Also, when George is describing Curley, he is ironically describing himself as well. “This guy Curley sounds like a son-of-a-bitch to me. I don’t like mean little guys” (27). Not only does George have a physical impairment, he has a mental impairment as well. “Well, we ain’t got any,” George exploded (11). This shows that George has an anger management problem which he tends to take out on Lennie. Lennie Small’s last name is very ironic because his physical features are the complete opposite of his last name. “A huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little” (2). Lennie has an impairment which is that his brain and maturity level is like a young child’s. “I ain’t gonna say nothin’ [...] I ain’t gonna say nothin’”” (7). Also,
Lennie will not do things unless George commands him. “Lennie’s hands remained at his sides; he was too frightened to defend himself” (63). Due to his impairment he also does not know how strong he really is “He shook her [...] and her body flopped like a fish” (91). While George and Lennie were working on the ranch, they had met a man who had no