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.

The American Dream is not something you get, but it’s something you have to work hard for, this is what George Milton believes the American Dream to be. Whilst George and Lennie often speak about their dream of getting a farm and working hard to get it, George always looks towards the work involved in getting it. As George states in the novel, “We gotta keep it till we get a stake. We can’t help it, Lennie. We’ll get out jus’ as soon as we can. I don’t like it no better than you do.” Through this quote, Steinbeck is revealing that for the men to get their American Dream, they must go through troubling,

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.

People living during the great depression had dreams but on seemed to be the most popular but with their own twist to their dream. The American dream is in the Declaration of Independence stating “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. This dream is called the American Dream. The American dream is a set of standards in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success that can be achieved through hard work and determination. Steinbeck uses the American dream to give each character a goal to work toward to. Each character had their own American Dream. Owning some land so you could live independently, to tend the rabbits or to be playing cards with the other guys.

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

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.”

The American dream is the main Idea In John Steinbeck book Of mice and men. The idea of the American dream is that is suppose to be attainable by anyone regardless of race,wealth,religion, or just any other factors. In the book the two Friends George in Lennie dream about owning their own ranch and living off the “fatta of the land” and to just enjoy life basically,Living off the “fatta the land” is the parallel to the American dream, but as the poem “To a mouse” that the book is named after states “The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men Gang aft agley, An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!”

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

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.

The spirit of the American Dream is something that many people aspire to have and achieve. However, it takes a large amount of work and time in order to obtain the dream. In John Steinbeck’s book, Of Mice and Men, many of the main and supporting characters, especially Candy, Lennie, and George, want to be living in this dream. Dreams are the main goal that the men work for, but they are extremely hard to accomplish and almost all of them shatter before they come true.

Of Mice and Men takes place during the height of the Great Depression near Soledad, California which is filled with small family-owned ranch farms, where the two main characters George Milton and Lennie Small search for jobs to eventually be able to buy their own ranch. Of Mice and Men’s purpose is to teach young adults what it means to be human and how to overcome major obstacles that will arise in their life. Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck, who lived during the Great Depression so that gives him a great deal of context from his childhood observations of the poor migrant workers searching out a menial living by traveling from one ranch to another looking for work. During the Great Depression, menial work was scarce due to the amount of people without jobs that were in need of one. So often workers would have to travel around to many other ranches to find a job, and when they did find one, it was not stable for very long. The ones that truly saw the American Dream and diligently pursued whatever their dream was, were the ones who were willing to pick up everything and move as far as they needed to, in order to have a shot at attaining their dream. The American Dream is portrayed all throughout Of Mice and Men through character motivation to do better than the next guy, to become successful, or to just make ends meet.