Word Count: 67.6
Disabilities, both physical and developmental, have lasting effects on both the individual with one or more disabilities, along with those who help care for the individual. Yet unfortunately, society can be negative with projecting a lack of empathy and understanding for the individual and the challenges they face on a daily basis. In both Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird, we are presented with two stories which incorporate disabilities, and how others treat the disability as something to fear or discriminate, instead of people putting themselves in the shoes of that individual to try and see things from their perspective. And sadly, we continue to see such fear and discrimination even to this day.
In the novella Of Mice and Men, we meet the character of Lennie; a tall, somewhat muscular individual who is intellectually challenged with not knowing his own physical strength, and who’s unable to adequately process the consequences of his actions before having carried them out.
Lennie’s caretaker George throughout the story, defends Lennie and tries to get Lennie to act as close to a normal person as Lennie is capable. When George tests Lennie on what he is going to do upon arriving at the ranch, Lennie thinks for a moment before replying back that “[he] ain’t gonna say nothin’” (p. 6), signaling that George didn’t trust Lennie to stay out of trouble, especially as people could openly discriminate against intellectual disabilities back during the depression era.
While George cared for Lennie at times throughout the story, his attitude and actions at times were clearly challenged I feel, in seeing Lennie as a liability of sorts. For example, he didn’t want Lennie to talk when they first arrived at the ranch, he was iffy about trusting Lennie with a puppy, and at the end of the story when the small gathering of ranch workers set out to track Lennie down following the death of Curley’s wife, George takes it upon himself to kill Lennie by his own hands before the mob could reach them. Whether George saw the killing of Lennie as an act of mercy to avoid being hanged by the mob who were hunting for him, or if it was for a more personal reason such as allowing George to be free of what had been holding him back for such a long time, we may never know. Yet, George struggled to put himself in Lennie’s shoes, often electing to talk down to Lennie as a child who would never amount to anything on his own.
In the beginning of Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, we then see how young children can be affected and made to fear someone based on rumors alone, particularly if the target of the rumors has a disability. When the children hear stories about the Radley house and of how when Arthur (Boo) Radley was purportedly trying to kill his parents in a calm, psychotic manner, his father insisted afterwards that Arthur not be locked up in any asylum (p. 12). But the neighborhood began spreading rumors which reached the impressionable minds of children, instilling a sense of fear about the house. Children feared the house, and when Dill challenged Jem to try and lure either Boo, or his elder brother Nathan Radley out of the house, Jem was clearly scared to go near the house, until the terms of Dill’s dare were altered to just touching the side of the house. But kids would vividly imagine the pecan nuts from the Radley yard to be poisoned (p. 10). That jumping to conclusions and fear which had been instilled in the minds of local children, meant that along with most adults in the region, no one wanted to even associate with the Radley family because of the misunderstanding over Boo’s (as of yet unknown) intellectual disability. That fear leads the children to pull stunts of ridicule against the family, such as the dare given to Jem.
I found both stories interesting as someone who has been bullied for intellectual disabilities in the past (notably as a young child when classmates and teachers would ridicule me for daydreaming in class and not finishing homework on time/scoring poorly on tests). Indeed, it wasn’t until I was 14 that I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder without Hyperactivity, and I’d had it engrained into me by peers and a few teachers prior to that point, that I was stupid and would never amount to anything. So having re-read Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, as well as being introduced to Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was certainly able to in one sense, remind me of my past and the work we as individuals and society in general have, to help bridge the gap of fear, prejudice, and misunderstandings.
I hereby pledge upon my word of honor, that I have neither given, nor received, any unauthorized aid in this assignment.
-Richard Yeomans.
