Of Mice and Men: Looking at George Milton as a Caregiver\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tIn John Steinbeck\u2019s novel, Of Mice and Men<\/em>, character George Milton exemplifies the difficulties that caretakers of special populations face in his interactions with Lennie Smalls. George and Lennie travel together as they work on farms. It quickly becomes clear that Lennie has some form of a behavioral and\/or cognitive disability. Lennie and George are both adults, but their exact age is unclear. Despite having entered adulthood, Lennie displays childlike behavior; \u201chis huge companion [Lennie] . . . flung himself down and drank from the surface of the green pool . .\u00a0 . \u2018Lennie, for God\u2019s sake don\u2019t drink so much . . . Lennie. You gonna be sick like you was last night\u201d (Steinbeck 2-3). While traveling to a new farm to work for, Lennie and George stop by a semi-stagnant pond. Without thinking of the safety of the water, Lennie focuses on the need to satisfy his thirst. George, acting as Lennie\u2019s guardian, prevents Lennie from drinking too much to avoid sickness. This is just one of many instances when Lennie needs the help of George in order to survive.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tAs the pair of men travel to a new farm to work at, the reason why they left their previous town is revealed. \u201cYou get in trouble, you do bad things and I got to get you out\u201d George tells Lennie (Steinbeck 10). Prior to leaving, Lennie wanted to feel the cloth of a dress a girl in town happened to wear. Lennie approached the girl with no ill-intent, but she screamed. In response to the girl\u2019s scream, Lennie himself became frightened and did not release his grip. The girl then claimed that Lennie raped her, resulting in the need for Lennie and George to run out of town. Throughout the novel, George points out that his life would be easier without having to take care of Lennie; \u201cIf I was alone I could live so easy\u201d (Steinbeck 10). Lennie lacks the general understanding of the world that George possesses. Although George has his own faults, such as the language he uses to address Lennie, he acts as Lennie\u2019s guardian with the best intentions by shielding Lennie from a world that does not understand him.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tWhen George and Lennie arrive at the new farm in California, George instructs Lennie to not speak to anyone. George fears that if their new boss learns of Lennie\u2019s disability, that the boss will remove them from the farm. George creates a story about Lennie that the other men on the farm will understand; \u201cHe got kicked in the head by a horse when he was a kid. He\u2019s awright. Just ain\u2019t bright. But he can do anything you tell him\u201d (Steinbeck 21). The other men working the farm are able to understand Lennie\u2019s behavior when there is a physical reason for it \u2013 such as the lie of Lennie receiving a kick to the head from a horse. George understands the worldview that faces people with disabilities, and does his best to protect Lennie from the brunt of it all. Ultimately, everything that George does for Lennie is to protect Lennie from the misunderstandings of others. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Of Mice and Men: Looking at George Milton as a Caregiver\u00a0 In John Steinbeck\u2019s novel, Of Mice and Men, character George Milton exemplifies the difficulties that caretakers of special populations face in his interactions with Lennie Smalls. George and Lennie travel together as they work on farms. It quickly becomes clear that Lennie has some … Continue reading “Jessica Longhi’s Response to Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[104,34,52],"class_list":["post-1730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-george-was-doing-his-best-ok","tag-short-reading-response-paper","tag-short-reading-response"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcJhts-rU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1731,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730\/revisions\/1731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}