What is the significance of lennies hallucinations

I took it that Lennie has gone delusional, a psychotic break brought on by the trauma of killing Curley's wife. But now I will reread it and do a bit of research and get back to you.

I hadn't really thought too hard about that part until you brought it up. At the time I guess I interpreted it as it was just his imagination and he wasn't smart enough to recognize it as such. But I think now that Monty's idea of it being trauma makes sense. Also, exhaustion could have been a factor. As to whether it belongs, I think it does. It shows what was going through his head at the time. Plus I feel that it's very sad because it highlights how simple and child-like his dreams were, but they were still enough to make him happy.

Jul 03, AM. You both make really great points, and I agree with you both as well, but my only discomfort comes from the fact that at no other point in the book do we get the story from Lennie's perspective.

Any theories why Steinbeck did that? I think we all had a strong idea of his mental ineptitude and childlike ideology. In my copy, this scene takes up only about a page. Very strange. Mind you, it doesn't make me enjoy the story any less. From a craft standpoint, though, I'm intrigued. Thanks for humoring me! Jul 03, PM. Scott wrote: " There is no indication Lennie has had other such events, so this dramatic scene implies that he's gone irretrievably "over the edge," perhaps further justifying his euthanasia.

Delaying our penetration into Lennie's point of view makes the scene more effective because of the shock of discovering his terrible inner world. Perhaps he was insane all along, not just retarded. Excellent discussion. This is a superb resource for learning more about what Steinbeck thought about specific literary works. It is a tricky little thing designed to teach me to write for the theatre. I'm using a new set of techniques as far a I know.

I'm not interested in method as such but I am interested in having a vehicle exactly adequate to the theme. Second point, as mention in the last quote, Steinbeck wanted of Mice and Men to be "a vehicle exactly adequate to the theme. The theme revolves around the unfulilled, even broken, dreams of individuals. In keeping with this idea, maybe Steinbeck chose to include a Lennie dream at the very end to tie the theme together. The Lennie dream also serves the purpose of setting the stage, so to speak, of showing the complete nulification of Lennie's overall dreams, since Lennie is moments away from being killed.

Monty I love that you introduce the idea that perhaps Lennie was actually insane rather than handicapped. It's an interesting idea because he's regularly called "crazy" by George and other characters in the book. Could Steinbeck have been toying with us? Or am I reading this with too much of a perspective? Brad "The theme revolves around the unfulfilled, even broken, dreams of individuals.

What was once a plausible - if far-fetched - fantasy has disintegrated into delusion. He knows what must happen, even as Lennie goes on believing in the rabbits. Whereas in Chapter One we see George and Lennie's "best laid plans," here in Chapter Six we have irrefutable evidence that, just as Robert Burns' poem predicts, these plans have gone awry.

Emphasizing the delusional nature of Lennie's point-of-view, Steinbeck adapts his one experimental narrative gesture in the novel, choosing to depict two hallucinations - first Aunt Clara, and then more ludicrous still a giant sardonic rabbit. It is unclear whether we are supposed to understand these hallucinations to be one-time phenomena or regularly recurring. By the way, the reader may find it a bit unbelievable that this gentle giant, who everywhere else proves incapable of understanding figurative language, is able to imaginatively generate such colorful self-chastisements as "you ain't worth a greased jack-pin to ram you into hell" His thoughts, though, focus on the pattern he and George have established when Lennie does bad things: George scolds him, threatens to leave him, and then ends up telling him once again about their dream of a ranch.

The fact that Lennie anticipates the same pattern this time is indicative of his childlike innocence. Instead of asking George right away for the story of the farm, he asks him for the story of "giving me hell. George, however, cannot finish the story of what he would do without Lennie. He falters, realizing that soon he truly will be without Lennie. When Lennie realizes that George is not going to beat him or leave him, he playfully finishes the story, and he adds why they are different from the others: "An' I got you.

We got each other, that's what, that gives a hoot in hell about us. But, of course, this story is not reality in a cold, harsh world.

There is no place for innocence or people who look out for each other. As Lennie envisions the dream that seemed so close a few days ago, George shoots him as Carlson shot Candy 's dog, and like the dog, without a quiver, Lennie dies. Earlier in the novel, Slim told Candy it would be better to put his dog down, better for their "society" as a whole. This comment begins a number of comparisons between Candy's dog and Lennie. George never really understood how dangerous Lennie could be and always thought Lennie's strength could be restrained.

Now it is obvious that Lennie is a danger to society, even though innocent in the motivations for his actions. Candy had no other merciful options for his dog, and George sees no other options for Lennie.