of mice and men- chapter 5- Lennie

In this chapter Lennie seems to come across as a bit of a toddler (as he does in the whole of the book) and it shows how he cant cope without a carer. (in this case George) The chapter starts off with all of the ranch men out and Lennie back at the ranch all alone because earlier in the book George says that Lennie is not aloud off the ranch. Lennie goes into the barn to visit his pup. Where he ends up 'hurling' his pup, killing it. Lennie didn't realize this would kill the puppy as he says 'Why do you gotta get killed? You ain't so little as mice. I didn't bounce you hard.' This shows Lennie thought that 'hurling' the puppy, wouldn't hurt him which means he doesn't really understand how strong he is and what he is capable of doing; expressing this through the 'hurling' of the pup. However, if George was present and 'supervising' Lennie, he wouldn't have 'hurled' the puppy. This shows that Lennie doesn't want supervising, he NEEDS supervising. After Lennie conspicuously talks to the dead pup, Curley's wife drops into the barn to talk to Lennie because he's the only guys she 'can talk to!' this suggests that she is lonely and that curley doesn't allow her to talk to any other man in case they get 'too close'. They begin talking and Curleys' wife tells Lennie to touch her hair because she thinks it is soft. As Lennie has the mind of a child, he doesn't want to let go, which makes Curleys' wife scream and yell for help as he won't let go of her hair. In addition to this, Lennie gets frustrated with the woman and wrongly covers her mouth with his hand, the woman continuously keeps screaming, even as Lennie pulls he hands away from the 'tart's' mouth. Because Lennie doesn't know how to deal with this, he starts to shake the woman with swift back and forth movements. 'Her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still. Lennie had broke her neck.' This clearly shows that Lennie doesn't learn from his mistakes as he has already killed the puppy almost in exactly the same way as he has killed Curley's wife. Therefore this also shows that he is immature and hasn't a single clue what he is doing.