Week 4 Flowers vs. Mice

I liked "Of Mice and Men" more the "Flowers for Algernon", that's probably because I felt like I could relate a little more to "Of Mice and Men". Both of the books brought mental handicaps into the picture in their own ways. "Flowers for Algernon" brings retardation into view in the the life of a handicapped adult and the want to be smart, and the willingness to do anything to achieve that goal to be normal in the world that Charlie lived in. The experiment was his attempt at reaching that goal. In "Of Mice and Men", Lennie is a big, strong adult, but has the mental handicap that makes him a problem maker. He can't really be helped with his handicap which is one of the reasons he causes all kinds of problems, like killing Curley's wife on accident. His size and mental capacity makes him kind of a threat. It's problems like these that get Lennie killed in the end by his best and only friend. He was just doing more bad then good with good intentions. Both of these portrayals make very good points about the treatment of mental handicaps and what may eventually come to be of them, fixed or dead.