The American Dream can mean many different things. Each person has a slightly different version of the American Dream. If you think about it, they are like fingerprints, they could be similar, but they are all a little different. Many books mention the American Dream and for this essay I read some of them. Some of the books are Of Mice And Men, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, The Help, and The Death of a Salesman. I have read Of Mice And Men and written about it. I also interviewed my grandparents, my mother, and my cousin who is thirteen. I will also be talking about my American Dream and what I think the typical American Dream is. I will start with Of Mice And Men. The entirety of the book is about George and Lennie achieving their …show more content…
It was posted in the New York Times. According to the article, the American Dream has become more materialistic since the 1930’s. “Instead, in the 1930s, it meant freedom, mutual respect and equality of opportunity” (Shiller). The American Dream being about freedom and equality continued until the 1970’s and 1980’s. Martin Luther King Jr. talks about the American Dream in his I Have A Dream speech in 1963, the article points out. In fact, the term “American Dream” could be tokened from the speech given by Mister King. The article talks about the progression of the Dream as decades go …show more content…
“Let me start off with I’m a third generation American. My family came here from Germany. They were very successful in this country and made a very comfortable living. They worked hard for what they had. They never took a penny from the government and would have been ashamed to accept money they did not learn. I think the typical American Dream is to have a healthy family and be able to have enough money to live comfortably. My American Dream is to make everything fair in this country. If you work all your adult life, you pay taxes on your earning, and then when you retire, you pay taxes on the money you contributed to your retirement account, your investments, and your social security. If I had chosen not to work I could have gotten food stamps, monthly money supplements, free medical insurance, government housing, and a free college education. On top of all that, I could have stayed home with my children and not had to put them in daycare. Plus all the said free not earned commodities, I would not have to had paid one penny in taxes for all that. There was a time in my adulthood I could have lived better with the government supporting me than I was able to make working 40 hours a week. The reason I worked is because I knew to get ahead in the business world I had to get experience and knowledge that you can’t get any other way. I wouldn’t have gotten that knowledge and experience living off the government. More
The American Dream is something many Americans desire. The desire to the mind – set or belief that anyone can be successful if they worked hard for what they’ve been yearning. It is considered to be a ‘perfect life’; it can be full of money, contentedness or even love. There are many divergent opinions given by people. Walter Younger from Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ and Willy Loman from Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of the Salesman’ both have their own views on the American Dream and how it can be achieved. Walter Lee Younger, a
When one talks about the American Dream, thoughts go to being happy and self-satisfied as an individual. It doesn’t portray following in others footsteps or becoming like one’s parents or grandparents. It allows a person to step out into world and find out who they are. It allows a person to become more than just another “chip off the block”. It allows a person to grow, succeed and transform into a person full of happiness and content due to the freedoms they are allowed. This is why many immigrants came to America. They wanted the freedom to drop everything that was burdening them in their homeland and become something new and prosperous. The American Dream takes a person’s determination and willingness to work toward their dreams and goals and gives them a chance to achieve it all. The American Dream is about the individual and the desires without these the goals will not be achieved.
In the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, it is portrayed in several ways that is impossible to achieve one's dreams due to disabilities, circumstances, and even by the color of one’s skin. In the novel, almost every character Steinbeck writes about has a dream but has no possible chance of living out that dream. Not according to Steinbeck, the american dream is and should be equally achievable for everyone who’s willing to put forth the effort and hardship to make their dreams happen, but Steinbeck shows us differently. Steinbeck shows us that no matter how hard you work, something will always get in the way and shut down the possibility of obtaining the dream. So in other words, no, the american dream is not achievable for everyone in Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.”
As America was formed, so was the American Dream. People from all over migrated to America in search of this dream. In the novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, many different characters have a glimpse of the American Dream. However, as in real life, these dreams do not always come true. Steinbeck illustrates the improbable chance of the American Dream coming true through the hopelessness of the characters’ conversations.
We live in an age where many of us don't realize that the American dream is falsely promoted. It Is painfully clear that it was destined to fail from the very start. The American Dream is a flawed system in which is unattainable for a majority Americans due to the lack of education, work ethic, and the amount of disabilities First of all, it is worth considering that education is essential to achieving the American dream. Without it there is a lower chance of getting a higher paying job; especially if you are born into a poor family. Education is a determining factor in the manor of achievement.
John Stienbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” is about the death of the American dream. George, Lennie and Candy’s dream is to own their own piece of land to work and live independently on. This dream is destroyed by Lennie’s ignorance and Lennie’s strength, which he cannot control. Curley’s wife’s dream is to be a famous Hollywood actress. Her dream is destroyed by her marriage to Curley and the Hollywood director who promised to contact her about her acting career but never has. Crook’s dream is for equality. Racism and the attitudes of others destroy this dream.
The American Dream was a concept that quickly became instilled in the mind of thousands of immigrants and migrant workers as they were searching for a better life. They believed that America would be a land where life would be better, more successful, and consist of many opportunities. Although very few were able to reach the level of prosperity they aspired for at that time, several people still continue to believe in the American Dream today. In the novella Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays the idea that dreams will simply stay as dreams through the characters who failed to reach their own. As stated by Robert Burns, “The best laid schemes of Mice and Men go oft awry”, meaning that even the greatest planned dreams can be shattered,
Theologians, writers, and political figures all have different definitions for the American Dream. While some are optimistic, many of them discredit the Dream. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck writes about two penniless, nomadic, working men, dreaming of one day owning their own small piece of land. Ideally, with hard labor and dedication the men should successfully accomplish their goal; however, one of their fellow farm workers reveals his realization that there are “too many guys with land in their head. They never get none under their hand...” (Steinbeck 76). Steinbeck approaches the American Dream as a competition in which few ever emerge victorious. Ta- Nehisi Coates emulates Steinbeck’s perspective of the Dream’s ingenuity in his memoir
The so called American Dream in John Steinbeck's novel is varied when it came to the characters. All the old man Candy wans is a sense of freedom. The dream of freedom over comes him, even after he found out that Lennie has killed Curly's wife, he wants the dream of the farm so badly that he begs George to go through with it even though it eventually didn’t go through. Other characters like Crooks he just wants a sense of belonging enjoy simple life such as the right to go inside of the bunkhouse and not be looked downed upon. Or even to be able to play cards with the other guys instead of being separated from the others left alone. This desire would explain why, he eventually questions George and Lennie’s ability to make the dream of the farm
There is a great difference between doing what we want and doing what God wants. Whether which side we base our actions upon, there’s a chance we may not please the other side. If so, what problems will arise if Christian and American dream values differ? If we point of the differences between each belief, we are able to see how much they interfere with each other. In the American dream, working hard is a key point to success, and one’s actions are based on what they believe will benefit them, despite it being morally right or wrong. This belief is touched upon in the stories, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and The Mammon and the Archer by O. Henry. In a Christian’s eyes, they reflect their actions upon what God sees as morally right, regardless
The American Dream is the result of possibilities and success. The term “American Dream” was been invented by James Truslow Adams in 1931: “That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.” Another reference to the American Dream appears in the Declaration of Independence (1776). The author wrote that people are “endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The question of the debate was: “Is the American Dream Still Alive and Well?”
The most important theme present in Of Mice and Men is the unattainability of the American Dream, represented by the outcome of all these characters lives. This theme shows in many of the characters lives such as Curly’s wife, Crooks, Candy, George, and Lennie. Before Curly’s wife died, she told Lennie about her dream of becoming an actress and getting on the “big screen”. However, instead of that dream getting fulfilled, she ended up unhappily married to Curly, never getting her American Dream. Another example of this is with the two main characters, George and Lennie. They stated in the first chapter that their dream was to own a farm. While they just talked about this as an impossible idea in their ideal world, this dream actually becomes
Of Mice and Men has many different themes, one theme is “The Great American Dream”. Steinback showed that in the Great Depression era almost every working American had their own dream that they wanted to achieve, for example, owning their own land, getting married, having a family, not having to work anymore, etc. In Of Mice and Men Steinback focuses on different characters, showing their backgrounds, what their dream is, how they are trying to achieve that dream, why they didn’t and/or who they are going to do it with.
Quote #1: "I remember about the rabbits, George.""The hell with the rabbits. That’s all you can ever remember is them rabbits." (1.18-19)
The American Dream is a concept that one may use as a crutch: a reason to hold on to hope. The American Dream is a goal one sets for themselves, a destination point for their journey through life. The novel Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck is filled with the idea of the American Dream. However, Steinbeck has a controversial and differing message about dreams than one would normally think. John Steinbeck’s comment on the American Dream is that most dreams are unachievable. People aren’t meant to live out their dreams.