Do we like them?

Do we like Lennie Small?

A character from Of Mice and Men (1937)

Our score: 6 out of 10. We'd back his heart, not his hands. He's loyal, loving and harmless in intent, but he can't control his strength, so he needs someone looking after him.

Lennie is a giant of a man with the mind of a child. He and George Milton drift across California during the Great Depression, taking farm jobs where they can. George does the thinking and the talking, and Lennie follows. He loves soft things, such as mice and puppies, and he holds on to the story George tells him of a farm of their own with rabbits to tend.

Lennie's problem is his strength. He doesn't understand it, and he forgets rules almost as soon as he hears them. He has already caused trouble before the book opens, and the two men are always one mistake from being run off a ranch. Lennie is never cruel. He is afraid, confused and eager to please, and that makes him easy to like and hard to trust around other people.

We score him a 6. He is loyal and sweet, and the book asks us to feel for him because the world has no place for someone like him. But his good intentions don't cancel the damage he can do, and he depends so heavily on George that we can't fully back him as someone who stands on his own. He is more an innocent to protect than a hero to follow.