Throughout the literary works of Great Gatsby, Death of a Salesman, and Of Mice and Men, each plot has its main character striving to reach a goal, but in the end, they “arrive where [they] started.” In the Great Gatsby, the main character searches for a love which he already had in his past life, but only ends up dead in his search for love. In Death of a Salesman, the main character is searching for success in his son, but only ends up killing himself to that his son will have a successful life. In Of Mice and Men, the main character takes a family member under his wing after he is displaced, but soon realizes that he will not be able to stop a never-ending cycle of fleeing from authority if he does not kill his accomplice. Although these
The book Of mice and men was written in a period when people with mental illness were treated like outcasts. The people were
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.
George and Lennie discuss having their own farm while on the way to yet another job trying to achieve it. The night before going to the farm, George tells Lennie, not for the first time, that “Someday- were gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres” (14). The Depression era is known for poverty and desolation, and because George needs a distraction from the responsibility of taking care of Lennie, the pair discusses it often to keep hopes up. When George is about to kill Lennie, they discuss their farm as a nostalgic distraction from the unmitigable situation around them. Lennie's last words before George shoots him are “‘Le’s do it now. Le’s get that place now’”(106). Killing Lennie is very painful for George, so he talks about something good and happy in order to pull himself through, but ultimately kill the dream when he kills Lennie. Their goal of getting a farm wasn't realistic and existed purely to keep George going day to
He yearns to be seen as an equal to everyone else, wishes to be self-sufficient, to have a companion, and to be able to live a life of his own choosing. This dream is significant to Crooks since it provides him with a feeling of confidence, self- dignity, and pride that was not so often appreciated during the time when he was feeling lonely. To be specific, in Chapter Four, when he is conversing with Lennie and Candy about the dream farm that Lennie frequently speaks about, Crooks promises to work for nothing as long as he can live his life out there without the fear of being put out (Steinbeck). Perhaps, with the help of Lennie and the others, it could have been a true reality to be free and successful. But, the undeniable circumstances, such as the discrimination Crooks faced, would not have gotten him very far as he would have liked to. To illustrate, Crooks is “put in his place” by Curley’s wife, when he voices out his feelings, causing him to lose his pride and hope to be seen as an equal to the other white men at the ranch. Due to the prejudice Crooks faces because of his race, the overpowering circumstance dooms his desires to be independent and equal. After all, he wishes to acquire the perfect American Dream. But, there is no security for anyone in a prejudiced world, least of all a black stable hand with a crooked back. Hence, the cruel and unequal circumstances Crooks encounters in Of Mice And Men restricts him from fulfilling his dreams and
. . every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.” In this passage , after Lennie shares with Crooks his plan to buy a farm with George and raise rabbits, Crooks tries to deflate Lennie’s hopes which creates dangers that may lie beyond our understanding. He relates that “hundreds” of men have passed through the ranch, all of them with dreams like Lennie’s. Not one of them, he emphasizes with bitterness, ever succeeds to make that dream come true. Crooks shows a sense of reality, telling again of Lennie’s childlikeness , and that the dream of a farm is, after all, only a dream. This moment show’s off Crook’s character, and how a lifetime of loneliness and cruelty can lead to bitterness. It also furthers Steinbeck’s disturbing thought’s that those who have strength and power in the world are not the only ones responsible for cruelty. As Crooks shows, even though he was hurt by others, he seeked out Lennie and attacked him because he is even weaker than Crooks is.
George demonstrates how the dreams he made created a false security for him to rely on. George describes their dream to Lennie when he says, “O.K. Someday-- 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 and-” (14). George uses the dream to distract himself from his life as a migrant worker. The life of migrant workers, isolated and repetitive, usually ends in no success. Migrant workers often spend their paychecks on alcohol during excursions into town. This lack of success leads to a vicious cycle of endless work with no destination, meaning they never leave the ranch to start their own life. Opposing, George and Lennie have a hope for success and want to buy a house like in their dream. Before they arrived at the current ranch, Lennie’s lack of self control resulted in their quick getaway from Weed. On page 7, George exclaims, “They run us outa Weed,’ he exploded triumphantly. ‘ Run us out, hell,’... ‘ We run. They was lookin’ for us, but they didn't catch us.’” George wants to focus on achieving his dream but he knows that Lennie could potentially mess it up for both of them. In the end, Lennie eventually holds his reputation true and causes trouble on the ranch. As a result, George kills Lennie which ruins
Does Steinbeck reflect a desperate society or does he offer some hope and optimism in his novel "Of Mice and Men"
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
George and Lennie are two of the people in the book that dreamt about something, and that something was getting their own place and living by themselves. George, the character who dreams about getting a place, not only dreamt about that place but also talked about it. ”Ok some day_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 and. . . ”(pg. 14). This quote describes the life they want to live after they get the
The quote given is very significant to the two most important characters in my eyes, Lennie and George, both are searching for something that can’t be easily reached. Their end goal is, the following, “We’ll have a vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work, we’ll just build up a fire in the stove an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof.” This is a rather big goal for two men who at the time are ranchers and have had a rough past, and both struggle
The bunkhouse was nearly empty, the men in the dining hall. The sun was just rising above the horizon, peeking through the dusty windows. If a blind man walked into the rectangular building, he would have never known a man named George was sitting on a bunk near the blackened stove, gazing at the floor, his eyes full of morose. The mattress next to him and the shelves hanging above it were empty, as if no one had sat on the bed or placed their belongings on the makeshift apple box shelves in a long while.
“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." John Steinbeck, the author of Of Mice and Men, introduced this concept of once one starts theoretical thinking, it can go on forever. This quote correlates to the American colonists' separation from Britain and formation of the United States because once they read ideas from authors such as Locke, Diderot, and Montesquieu, the colonist began to start thinking and creating their own thoughts about the government and how to improve it. The time was the 1760’s to the 1780’s and the American colonies were being taken advantage of by the British. Writers from France and Britain were making trying to change the government by writing how to fix
The American dream varies from person to person. Overall, the American Dream can be summed up as the ideal that everybody has an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and confidence. The American Dream has become a widespread term to describe the way of life of Americans, but it is by far not that easy. The American Dream usually consists of an individual dream. In comparison to Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie show true symbolization of the difficulties it takes to follow the American Dream and succeed. The American Dream is named for the opportunity, for ambitious people to use their talents to succeed, but in likeness with Lennie and George, it is not that easy and can possibly fall short of the American Dream.
The movie begins at a farm with workers and a post boy showing up to bring mail and the father trying to make a rocking chair that ends up breaking once sat on by him. Followed by the father visiting a grave assumed to be his wife's so far. Then we are now in the house were two of his boys are very excited to open the mail waiting for their fathers say to open it. Going through the mail one of the boys names a name a says that he has joined the continentales, but the father follows that up with the fact that he has been called in by the assembly and that they are now off to Charles Town. They arrive in Charles Town only to go to their aunt's house I am assuming that the aunt was on the mother's side. We quickly come to a scene outside with