Central Conflict "Of Mice and Men"

The Central conflict in Of Mice and Men is Lennie vs. society; he is a villain to himself and the insensitivity of the people around him doesn’t help him adjust to living normally. Also George, his only companion fuels the flames because he doesn’t particularly care to teach Lennie and help him understand, he just tells him things. All together the plot is wrapped around

Lennie does a great disservice to himself because he depends George tell him what to do. He cannot think for himself, and when he tries to he ends up doing something bad. “George make him stop” Lennie says. That is Lennie down playing himself, setting himself for failure by allowing others to tell him what to do. Yes he is mentally disabled but no he is not unable to use his head. He could be smart but he lets people take advantage of him, for his strength and sometimes for a good laugh.

Insensitivity is also what aids the conflict, lennie is obviously mentally ill, but no one pays him any mind. They don’t stop and have consideration because usually back then a person was wrong and outcast for having mental disabilities. “’Course he ain’t mean. But he gets in trouble alla time because he’s so god damn dumb”, this is a prime example of how people think that him having a disability is a horrible thing.

George is another reason why lennie is so messed up. Most friends give encouragement to their friends, and support them if they are ill in anyway. I doubt that George considers Lennie as a friend because he’s always saying things like “if I was a relative of yours id shoot myself” the irony in this that he was like a relative but he didn’t shoot himself he shot Lennie. If George meant well for lennie and wasn’t so selfish then he would have taught lennie to function. Instead he made his illness worse by taunting him and making fun.

Lennie doesn’t help himself out, and neither doesn’t anyone else. Reading of mice and men made me realize how horribly people treat people, particularly grown people, who are autistic or who have Down syndrome. Luckily for them they have more options then lennie did. He was not helping himself by being dependent, and George and no one else would ever truly treat him as a real person with feelings, that was this short novels main conflict.