Of Mice and Men: Care/Treatment of the Disabled

"The term 'disabled person' means any person unable to ensure by himself or herself;

wholly or partly, the necessities of a normal individual and/or social life, as a result of

deficiency, either congenital or not, in his or her physical or mental capabilities"

(Declaration 1). Six point two to seven point five million people of the population are

diagnosed with mental retardation. Mentally disabled people act, think, and grow

differently than normal people, which may lead to inappropriate behavior. In Of Mice

and Men, John Steinbeck allowed the reader to see that mentally disabled people were

different, but treated equally normal as any other human being, where as today, the

mentally disabled are being treated with special care and looked upon abnormally. To

prove this statement true, the next few paragraphs will state information regarding the

treatments, laws, rights, and viewpoints of mentally disabled people.

Many treatments take place today, good and bad, as to where in Of Mice and

Men, very few to no treatments occurred.

Lennie James

Lennie James

Lennie James

Either way, the treatments that took place back

then were not good ones. "Curley's still mad about his hand. An' s'pose they lock him

up in a cage. That ain't no good George" (Steinbeck 106). If mentally illed people did

anything wrong, they were looked upon as a sane human being, and treated like any other

person would be if they did anything horrible. Back then they might have even killed the

mentally disabled person for doing what he did. "I'm gonna shoot that bastard myself,

even if I only got one hand. I'm gonna get him" (Steinbeck 107). The so-called

"parents" or "guardians" of mentally disabled people were very protective and hated to

see any harm done onto them. "I'll come, but listen, Curley. The poor bastards nuts.

Don't shoot 'im"...