Of Mice and Men: Lennie as a Child

We can often look at someone and judging from their image, conclude that they are a child or an adult.  If a man is tall, with a beard, driving a car, or with children of his own, we often look at that evidence and rightfully conclude that he is an adult.  However, the physical signs of adulthood do not always accompany the mental and emotional qualities of being an adult—sometimes people who look like adults do not act at all in a way that would convince us that they are adults.  John Steinbeck explores this theme in his 1937 novel Of Mice and Men which tells the story of two men, George and Lennie, who work as ranch-hands to make a living during the period of the Great Depression.  George and Lennie are good friends and work everywhere together, but their relationship is unusual it is more like the relationship of a child to a parent than it is like a peer to a peer.  Some of the main ways in which Lennie shows that he is more a child than an adult are his impulsivity, his eagerness to seek approval from George, his loyal respect and trust in George’s authority.

First of all, Lennie has a very poor understanding of consequences and of cause and effect.  For instance, in the first chapter of the book when Lennie and George are introduced to the reader after George tells Lennie to not drink too much water we read that “Lennie dipped his whole head under, hat and all” (p. 2).  He then sits there as the water runs down onto his clothes.  It’s as though he has little to no concept of cause and effect or the fact that he would become soaked by indiscriminately and hastily dunking his entire head “hat and all” into the water.  He had not seriously considered the fact that by so doing, he would become soaked.  He is acting impulsively, very similar to how a child would act.  Furthermore, like a child, he doesn’t actually seem all that upset by the fact.  Children are very resilient and are not often deterred by consequences like being dirty, getting wet, and so on.  So Lenny doesn’t just act impulsively without regard for consequences, he doesn’t even seem to be that upset with the consequences in many instances.  He also does this after George had already warned him not to, a warning which of itself is similar to a paternal rebuke of a child; in other words, George seems to anticipate that he will need to treat Lennie like a child, precisely because Lennie will act without regard for consequences and impulsively.  And, just like a child, he goes ahead and acts impulsively even in spite of warnings not to.

Lennie also treats George more like a father and hopes to impress him the way that a child would hope to impress a parent.  After dunking his own head and hat into the water and ignoring George’s warnings, “Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water and wiggled his fingers so the water arose in little splashes… ‘Look, George.  Look what I done” (p. 2).  His actions themselves (playing and splashing in water) are child-like in the sense that they are very simple and unsophisticated, and they please him extraordinarily—an adult would likely not have the patience nor the interest to entertain themselves just by splashing in the water.  Children are far more easily satisfied and occupied with simple activities like playing in the water or in the rain or in the woods while adults tend to crave more sophisticated and stimulating leisure activities.  Lennie is not satisfied with only pleasing himself though, and he calls for George’s attention to the water, and to “what he done.”  Children habitually and regularly seek the approval of their parents, almost subconsciously and without necessarily realizing what they’re doing or why they’re doing it.  They often try to get their parents’ attention not just to share in the joy of the moment, but to seek approval for their actions.  Children want their parents to be proud of them.  This is exactly what Lennie is doing when he plays in the water and then tries to get George’s attention about the fact.

George seems very aware of the fact that Lennie behaves like a child and views him as a father, even if he doesn’t articulate it that way, and resultantly George allows this knowledge to inform how he treats Lennie.  When talking to Slim about Lennie, George explains that “Tell you what made me stop [taking advantage of Lennie’s simplicity] … One day a bunch of guys was standin’ around [a river]… I turns to Lennie and says, ‘jump in.’ An’ he jumps.  Couldn’t swim a stroke… damn near drowned” (p. 20).  Through experience with Lennie, George has come to realize that Lennie will do virtually anything George says.  This is emblematic of filial respect that a child has for their parent.  Trusting that their parent will only ask good things of them, children will often follow the direction of parents unquestionably, trusting in their authority almost dogmatically.  They don’t necessarily do any critical thinking when a parent tells them to do something, especially if they know that by doing it, they’ll win their parents’ respect—a sentiment that has already been shown to be very strong in Lennie.  Lennie’s fierce loyalty and eagerness to please and impress George has resulted in brushes with death.  George appreciates and understands that this is simply the way that Lennie “is” and he does his best not to take advantage of it, as he tells Slim.  This also shows that Lennie has “always” been this way—i.e., his pattern of child-like behavior transcends and expands far beyond what we know through the book itself.  In many places, there are references to Lennie’s childlike behavior outside of the events that take place within Of Mice and Men.  

Lennie doesn’t just listen to George, but as a rule and as a habit, Lennie imitates George just like a child will imitate an adult.  In the first chapter, we read that “George lay back on the sand and crossed his hands under his head, and Lennie imitated him, raising his head to see whether he was doing it right” (p. 4).  This is right after the brief saga with the water where Lennie acts impulsively and also shows that he requires George’s approval.  Children will often not just follow directions from adults in an effort to please them and out of an inordinate amount of trust, but they will frequently, in the same spirit, imitate adults.  For one reason, children do naturally learn very basic habits from adults—things like tying shoes, brushing teeth, and so on, are all things that we learn from our parents, through imitating.  The fact that Lennie is imitating George in such basic activities suggests that he is child-like and that he is looking up to George as a parental role model who will “show him” how things are done.  Children also imitate parents in order for the parents to notice the imitation.  This often produces recognition, familiarity, and approval just like many of their other actions.  When Lennie imitates George he is showing that he trusts George and that he looks to George as an example of what to do.  Contrary to his other actions which are impulsive, it’s very important to Lennie that he properly imitate George, and he goes to the trouble of checking to make sure he’s imitating George “correctly.”  This shows how important it is to Lennie that his actions mirror George’s actions.

In conclusion, though Lennie could never be mistaken for a child from a distance, he is very much a child.  His behavior shows that he acts impulsively and with little regard for or understanding of the concept of cause and effect, or the fact that his actions will have consequences.  This can be seen when he dunks his whole head underwater against the advice of George, and in the fact that he blindly jumps into a river even though he doesn’t know how to swim.  Also like a child, Lennie proves to have undying and filial respect for George.  Even though, like a child, he may not always “listen” to George, what George thinks is very important to Lennie.  He seeks George’s approval for the most simple and mundane acts of “child’s play” and he follows George’s direction more often than not, especially when in doing so he can “prove” something to George.  He defers to George with a sort of reverential respect.  He wants to be like George and he takes efforts to ensure that his actions align with George’s.  All of this evidence strongly supports the idea that Lennie is much more like a child than he is a grown man.

Work Cited

Steinbeck, J. (1937). Of Mice and Men. Penguin: USA. [.pdf file].