Smart people claim they are more powerful than those that are less intelligent. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Lennie is mistreated by the rest of the characters just because he is mentally impaired. Using animal imagery Steinbeck explores the idea that we are all part of nature and subject to its laws of survival, despite our intelligence.
Lennie is mistreated and made fun of because of his mental impairment. George says to Lennie, "God, you"re a lot of trouble, I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn't have you on my tail." Even though George sounds mad by having Lennie around he enjoys having him as a friend. Other people are scared of Lennie because he is different. Lennie says, "I wasn't kicked in the head with no horse." George answers, "Be a damn good thing if you was, save ever"body a hell of a lot of trouble." Certain animals don't like one another because we are all used to the things we know. George really needed a traveling companion and Lennie's aunt told him to take Lennie along. Eventually everyone else gets used to Lennie and liked him because he made their work lighter.
Lennie is also taken advantage of throughout the book because of his lack of intelligence. In addition, when the boss thinks George is "taking Lennie's pay." This shows that the boss knew Lennie was stupid and thought that George was taking advantage of him. It is obvious though that George is not really taking advantage of Lennie but just trying to protect him. For example, when Curley's wife tells Lennie to "Feel right aroun" there an see how soft it is." She was desperate to get away from Curley the whole book and flirts with all of the workers. In this part of the book she is taking advantage of Lennie and trying to seduce him, which ends up getting her killed. In the end everyone feels sorry for all the things that did to Lennie when he had to pay the ultimate price for his actions that were caused by Curley's wife.