The American Dream, the ultimate ideal of gaining a higher social class and becoming someone significant, is a goal Americans have strived for since the birth of the country. John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men displays the sinister nature of this goal through a multitude of the characters’ desperate attempts to achieve their dreams. Set during the Great Depression, this novella follows George and Lennie, two migrant workers, in their endeavour to fulfill their lifelong dream of owning their own property and “[living] off the fatta the land” (Steinbeck 242). The two men get jobs at a ranch in California in order to earn enough money to live their dream, but face several struggles, mainly Lennie’s disabilities. In the end of the story, George kills Lennie and, in doing so, kills their dream portraying the eventual failure of the American Dream. Through the struggles of George, Lennie, Curley’s wife, and Crooks, John Steinbeck portrays how the American Dream destroys their lives and their hope for their futures.
George and Lennie not only travel together; they also share a dream together. George and Lennie dream of having “a little house and a couple of acres [of land and] a cow and some pigs and...have rabbits” (Steinbeck 242). However, Lennie’s mental impairment impedes on their success several times. Time and time again, Lennie makes incidents at all their jobs, forcing him and George to flee in search of another job. Due to their constant wandering, they are unable
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
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.
Lennie and George’s dream is to own a piece of land to work and live where they can have cows, pigs, chicken a vegetable patch with alfalfa and rabbits. “O.K Someday – we’re going
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.
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.”
Considerably one of the most recognized maritime disasters, in the last century, was the sinking of the Titanic. A ship, well planned and executed, sank and killed nearly one thousand, one hundred six people. Just like the quote by Robert Burns, well thought out plans often go wrong.. Another plan that went wrong, and is the basis of the novella Of Mice and Men, is the dream of George and Lennie. Though the entire novella is written around the theme that plans go wrong, the strongest evidence of Burns’ quote is through their story.
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.
John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men proved that the American dream is unattainable. The characters in the story all have their own idea of what is the American dream. Curley’s wife, a woman who has more than most, is seeking out the American dream. She wants out of her situation, wishing that she had joined the traveling show years before. Curley’s wife openly confesses to Lennie that she “don’ like Curley” because Curley “ain’t a nice fella” (86). She chooses to confide in Lennie because he has taken an interest in her and none of the other men. She is seeking a companionship with him because he does not know any better. She persuades him to touch her hair, which leads to her death. Her American dream was dead long before she married