In the novel "Of Mice and Men", the author has a different type of perspective on mentally handicap people than I did before reading this book. Steinbeck views handicap people as big children. His view is that they are just kids inside of adult bodies. The author's opinion from what I take is that they really do no good for soceity, they can be nice people, but when it comes down to it they can't give much to better soceity. Also Steinbeck believes that once, they've done something morally wrong there's no way to correct them. He shows this by killing off Lennie, showing there was no other option. Steinbeck's opinion on handicap people is like they are a big child, but the only thing different is that children eventually do grow up, learn, and are able to be corrected. In Steinbeck's opinion mentally handicap people can not do any of those things. I can agree with Steinbeck that they are big children, but not that they cannot be corrected. The views on people with mental disabilities has changed completely since this novel was written. Now people are more accepting of people with disabilities. In the earlier times people saw them as almost 'test rats', they would preform harmful expirements on these people to try and figure out what was the problem. In our time now we've accepted them as part of soceity and have even made major changes to soceity so that they fit in and adjust. Overall the world is a better place for the mentally disabled today.
I completely agree. Mentally handicapped people are like big children, and from Steinbeck's point of view, they are hopeless and there is no point in trying to "fix" them. I somewhat agree with Steinbeck, in the way that he thinks mentally handicapped are children in adult bodies, but I disagree with the fact he thinks they are irreparable humans. Just because handicap people are not "normal" does not mean they are not real people, with real feelings. I also agree that this worlds view on mentally handicapped people has changed too. There is hope for the mentally handicapped. They are no longer thought of as problems in our society, they are fully accepted individuals. Of course, mentally handicapped still need to be watched over because they can, at times, be harmful to themselves and others, but they are given chances as if they are regular people. The hearts of our society has grown for the mentally handicapped.
ReplyDeleteKit, I totally agree with you! I feel that the author did try and portray mentally handicapped people as big kids. He also made them seem violent though. In the book Lennie acted as though he didn't know any better not to do wrong things. He just hasn't learned right from wrong yet. We have to give mentally handicapped people the chance to learn. Lennie wasn't given the chance. I agree with you when you say that they can be corrected. Even though they are born into a body and mind not as proficcient as ours, they can still be taught how to know right from wrong. Also, society is more accepting and understanding of people like Lennie today. Back then is posed many problems to society, because they didn't know how to treat or how to handle people with mental diabilities.
ReplyDelete