As humans, it is impossible not to feel empathy. But does human empathy have a limit? This question is subtly investigated in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men with the development of Lennie Smalls. A newcomer rancher with an intellectual disability and unmatched loneliness, Lennie appears incapable of doing any harm. However, when his actions escalate from killing mice to killing people, readers find it hard to retract the empathy they once felt so strongly for him. Steinbeck assigns Lennie the character archetype “the innocent” in his novel Of Mice and Men, leaving readers confused about how to interpret the character and his behavior, adding to the underlying moral of the novel.

Steinbeck assigns the character archetype of innocent to Lennie to establish him as pure and to capture the readers’ hearts. Lennie is introduced early in the book, and soon after it is revealed that he has an intellectual disorder that makes him forget things easily, no matter how hard he “trie[s] not to forget” (Steinbeck 4). This draws Lennie as childlike in the eyes of readers, leading them to feel protective of him. To contrast that initial impression of him, he is called “crazy” by his travel companion George when he witnesses Lennie’s inability to remember things, therefore labelling George as a villain (4). Lennie’s character is endearing and extremely difficult to dislike, leading the reader to feel defensive of him even more so than they have before. His character archetype involves being constantly picked on and seeking safety in others, which is furthered in just one word. Later in the book, when the duo reaches the farm, George confides in fellow rancher Slim: “‘Used to play jokes on ‘im ‘cause he was too dumb to take care of himself’” (40). George has been taking advantage of Lennie since childhood, which is made evident to the reader in this dialogue. Lennie is portrayed as incapable of doing harm, but this stronger figure inflicting harm on him evokes unrivaled sympathy. One more important detail is revealed when Lennie is told to hand a dead mouse that he has been holding in his pocket to George. As he hands it to him, his “voice [breaks] a little. ‘I don’t know why I can’t keep it. It ain’t nobody’s mouse’” (9). Lennie is quite obviously upset to be parting with his dear mouse, and he is confused as to why he must give it up. An attachment to animals can be traced down to loneliness, which is entirely possible for Lennie, an innocent individual who is violently discriminated against due to his disability. With each of these descriptions, Lennie is cast in the character archetype of “the innocent” to make the reader feel bad for him and realize that Lennie truly is innocent.

Throughout the book, Lennie keeps possession of his archetype, leaving the reader still empathizing with him through his insufferable actions. He is beaten in the bunkhouse by Curley, the boss’s son, after he was led to believe Lennie was laughing at him. During the struggle, Lennie was victimized: “Lennie covered his face with huge paws and bleated with terror.” This line compares him to both an animal with paws and a sheep, both of which are considered lowly and weak. Lennie becomes the obvious victim in this scene, adding to his blamelessness. However, Lennie, to the utmost surprise of all the readers, grabs Curley’s hand to block a dangerous punch, closes his fist, and tightens his grip until blood is trickling painfully down Curley’s wrist. An event like this should, in theory, change the readers’ view of Lennie. Instead, it was stated, “Lennie watched in terror the flopping little man whom he held.” Although Lennie is inflicting unimaginable pain on Curley, it is clear that he did not want to. The use of the word “terror” explains that Lennie remains under the ‘victim’ umbrella, allowing readers to sympathize with him instead of with Curley. This one action may have been excusable, but the question is, how far are readers willing to go before they lose their support of Lennie? This question is paired with an answer when Lennie reaches the lengths of murder. He was in a barn with Curley’s wife when asked to feel her hair. Curley’s wife thrashes as Lennie’s grip tightens, he then panics, grabs hold of her, and breaks her neck. Staring at her limp, breathless body, he says to himself, “’I done a real bad thing. … George’ll be mad’” (92). It is conspicuous that Lennie is flooded with regret and sorrow. He truly did not want to take her life, but his inability to think straight in a moment of loud noise or rapid movement took control. Anyone reading this surely has a moment they wish they could apologize for or undo, so they empathize with Lennie. His fear of George’s reaction also resurfaces the readers’ protection of Lennie, eliciting the same dread in them. Any wrongdoing of Lennie’s (no matter how extreme) is worded in such a way as to lift the blame off his shoulders, leaving readers awestruck at how they could subconsciously empathize with a murderer.

Lennie was given a pure and likeable persona before his capabilities were revealed, opening the readers’ eyes as to how this concept carries outside the book. Steinbeck has a tradition of sculpting his writing in such a way as to uncover underlying empathy or lack thereof in the reader. He describes Lennie as sweet and innocent even when murder enters the picture. Just moments before Curley’s wife’s life comes to an end, he says, “I don’t want ta hurt you’ (91). This makes it obvious that Lennie has no intention of harming her, but it seems inevitable. This, in the eyes of the reader, justifies his actions. After the crime, he spots a dead puppy nearby and decides to “throw him away” (92). At this point, the reader already understands how hard it is for Lennie to part with even a dead animal, so they sympathize with him. This sorrow that the reader is feeling for Lennie subconsciously carries over into the murder. Through this process, the reader’s anger towards Lennie is mitigated, almost completely for some readers. Lennie’s character development may not have gone in the direction hoped, but it surely is still important. He is first viewed as innocent, but it is revealed that his capabilities extend much further. There is a trend that appears throughout Steinbeck’s works: he uses specific characters and personalities to reveal deep-rooted flaws in readers. In this case, he uses Lennie to criticize people that exist in almost everyone’s lives and those still showing them empathy. Everyone knows somebody who first appeared to have the purest intentions but turned out to have the opposite. The last scene, however, leaves readers with advice regarding how to resolve such a problem. George kills Lennie to spare him the agonizing death he would have otherwise experienced at the hands of Curley. Once the act was done, Lennie “lay without quivering” (106). This is a metaphor telling the readers that if they get that manipulative figure out of their lives, their lives will run smoothly. It is debatable whether Lennie was manipulative intentionally, but regardless, Steinbeck is telling readers that this character undoubtedly reflects a figure in their lives that needs to be confronted before their once benevolent personalities become detrimental.

Within the first few moments, Lennie is established as kind and pure in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, and while readers are shocked and trying to grasp how he could be capable of murder, Steinbeck slips a moral through to the readers. That moral tells them to remove any manipulative figures from their lives. Long after the final page is turned, readers are left trying to decide whether Lennie was a villain in disguise or a pure soul who made a handful of mistakes. Either way, Lennie is not what any reader expected him to be, which is something almost everyone can see reflected in someone in their lives. The last thing Steinbeck leaves the readers with is a solution to such a complication. As he has done with similar tactics to those in past works, Steinbeck helps to uncover undeserved sympathy that readers hold towards not only Lennie, but other ineligible figures in their lives.

Work Cited

Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York City: Penguin Group, 1993.