Loss Of The American Dream In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The novella, Of Mice and Men takes place in the Salinas River Valley, California during the Great Depression. It was written by John Steinbeck, who grew up near the Salinas River Valley in the 1900s. During the Great Depression, stock markets crashed, and people went poor overnight. Some men would travel from farm to farm just to get enough food to feed themselves. They didn’t have homes, everything they owned could fit in a backpack. In his novella, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses Curley’s wife, Crook, and Candy, to contribute to prove the failure of the American Dream.

Propaganda filters throughout the world to lean people’s views one way or another. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, he uses George and Lennie, Crooks, and Curley’s wife to demonstrate the American Dream. This is unattainable but is their motivation to carry on their daily on the ranch lives. George and Lennie’s actions revolve around their American Dream. In a conversation between George and Lennie they discuss their dream, George states “... We’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres, an’ a cow and some pigs” (Steinbeck, 14). George says this to Lennie to motivate him to keep quiet and out of trouble so they can eventually reach these dreams. The American Dream can be defined as people

It is the natural inclination of all men and women to dream. In John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men,” the American dream is sought after by many different characters. However, the main theme in the story is how these dreams are unattainable, and how because of the Great Depression, all American dreams were dead. But what is the American dream? A unitary definition does not exist, however, the meaning of living the American dream is something that differs for everyone. For some people, the American dream might be acceptance and equality. On the other hand, for others, it might mean fame and fortune. In the short story called “Of Mice and Men” the American dream seems unreachable for a number of characters, such as George, Lennie,

In the novella Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, the struggle to achieve the American Dream; sucess, happiness and ownership of land weaves into the life of Crooks, an African American, disabled character who labors in the rural Californian ranch environment of the 1930’s. Throughout the story, Crooks struggles with the constant physical pain from his back, and emotional pain from the prevailing racism of this time period that isolates him from others. Due to his disability and race, Crooks is lonely, isolated and depressed, making it nearly impossible for him to achieve his dream.

A twenty-five percent unemployment rate. People desperate for lodging and food. Families stretching every penny to support themselves. Government trying to solve these problems through reforms and programs. This is what the world in the 1930s was like for Lennie and George, two migrant workers traveling across California, earnestly trying to achieve the American Dream. Even though these dreams seem impossible to accomplish, during the Great Depression a dream was a reason to get out of bed.

If there was a favorable circumstance under which one could endeavour all their hopes and visions, wouldn’t one pursue it? The American Dream was introduced as an interpretation to cause the people of America in the early twentieth century to work tougher. The American Dream is the opportunity to reach the goals one sets for themselves. It is about having your dream job and life one has always fantasized about. The dream is also about having freedom and equality. In the novel, “Of Mice & Men”, John Steinbeck uses symbols and motifs such as the vicious slaughtering of virtuous animals, Crooks’ rubbish bunkhouse and Lennie and George’s deception of an ideal farm to exhibit the perception that materialistic success results in happiness is a major flaw in our thinking about the American dream, and it is this thinking which makes the dream unattainable for many.

The most important dream in this novel is that of the two main characters Lennie and George. They

For years upon years, we have heard the concept of an “American Dream” repeatedly. In school, at home, and there’s probably several who have mused about it on their own during their time by themselves. It seems that, also, several have concluded that the Dream is dead: gone, disappeared, poof into thin air. Some argue that it’s nothing but a pack of lies our predecessors were fed to believe that perhaps America had a better future lingering just around the corner, or that it’s changed much from what it was ‘back in the day’. The American Dream has remained unchanged since the Great Depression, but the nation we are today may slowly be killing it. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the Dream is to have that equal opportunity for success, the same as in Bobby Jindal’s and Ellen Powell’s articles, but it seems that inequality may be killing the American Dream.

It also played a vital part in the moral of Mice and Men. The two of

not be the case for anyone else as George and Lennie were the only two

In today’s society, many dream of becoming rich and successful, similar to many people during the Great Depression. The American Dream is the idea that every individual can receive wealth and prosperity due to their hard work and determination. In the novel, Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie are best friends, facing the challenges of the Great Depression by working on a ranch in the Salinas Valley. As Lennie copes with the struggles of the era, he stays focused on his dreams and constantly has a positive mindset, which shows the American Dream can give hope even in the hardest times.

The American dream is a perfect life that everyone has thought of and works for. This dream is equivalent to a goal, in that it is a force that can push the human spirit to its best. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck demonstrates how the concept of a dream can empower an individual, but how the result can break an individual. Curley’s wife, Crooks, Lennie, and George all juxtapose the idea where a dream pushes someone to their fullest potential. The neverending battle that fate and human spirit engage in is found throughout the major and minor conflicts of this novella thus creating a reoccuring theme of inevitability and chance that structure the story.

As a result certain character had Americaine dream that they wanted to achieve from wanting to be a movie star and be in the big pictures in hollywood, curley’s wife didn’t fulfill her dream because she married a ranch worker so she had no choice, Lennie also wanting to tend rabbits so badly that if he got in trouble he would be sad and think that George wouldn’t let him tend the rabbits anymore and George and Lennie’s dream of owning their own ranch that dream might be hard to achieve after the death of Lennie. The author of mice men tells us the American dream of certain characters in the novel to achieve their own dream. Steinbeck shows in the novel that even if you dream about the American dream you're not going to achieve it. In conclusion

“With us it ain’t like that. We got a future(15).” George and Lennie is set on the idea to own that he even knows of some land that he thinks they could buy. George and Lennie travel from town to town, trying to achieve their goal. It is an dream that they will always be working for. In this time period, many migrants travel to earn a living like George and Lennie. Steinbeck's showed how hard is it to achieve the American Dream for many Americans, especially during the time period of the Great Depression. In the novella Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck crafts the theme of Dreams by using it through different aspects of the story, that a lot of people have a dream but, failed to achieve it.

When we try to chase our dreams, we end up in our own diminutive lonely world. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, has taught readers that the American dream can only ever be accomplished through hard work and determination. More times than others, we are distracted by the dream itself, and don’t chase the reality, which can then lead to high expectations, and without hard determination, that can then failure. In the end, we have been lonely for so long, chasing a dream, that when reality hits us, we become isolated and lonely. For George and Lennie, they have each other, until the American dream seemed too hard to chase.