Work and Goals in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Essay

Aspirations of success often drive individuals toward success. However if one only focuses on their dreams and not on working to achieve their goals, they will not be successful. Charles Dickens and John Steinbeck in their respective novels Great Expectations and Of Mice and Men, use their main characters failures in manifesting their aspirations to warn about the dangers of aspiring about the future and not focusing on success in the present.

John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.

During the 1930’s, many Americans were victimized by the Great Depression that had fiercely gripped the nation. Millions of people had no steady income and were forced to travel all around the country in search of a job that might support them for a little while longer. Most of these people had a similar goal; they all had a dream of reaching a heavenly place where they don’t need to worry about anything, and they have everything they’ve ever wanted. This is also what George and Lennie feel like in the novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. These two men wander around Northern California in search for a steady job that would allow them to settle down, and possibly even get them enough money to buy their dream land. However,

Lennie is a very unitelligent man with lots of strength, and he is only living the way he is used to which causes him to experience isolation. He doesn't remember much other than a future dream of him tending rabbits on a farm. His best friend, George, takes care of him. He also kills Curley's wife because he was told to

Do you have a goal in life? Many people just like you have a plan for their lives and spend the entirety of it trying to reach their goal; altering today’s decisions and sacrificing for tomorrow’s ultimate outcome. John Steinbeck’s of Mice and Men is one of our time’s most recognizable literary titles, covering friendship, goals, loss, and sacrifice seamlessly in a hundred-page book. Either in our world or Steinbeck’s imagination, we all have something we work and strive for.

Every accomplishment no matter how large or no matter how small all share something in common, they all can be linked to a dream. Dreams are what have been motivating mankind since the beginning. Whether it be an athlete at the top of their sport or kid winning his first tournament they both started at the same place being young, new to the sport, and only dreaming of being where they are today. Steinbeck used the dreams of workers on the ranch as form of motivation to give the idea that dreams are a driving force in life.

ain’t gonna get in no trouble, because if you do, I won’t let you tend

Steinbeck incorporates the theme of the American Dream, an expression used to represent wanted success, throughout his story Of Mice and Men as he provides glimpses of the dreams of many characters. Towards the end of the novel, the fact is that each of the characters “American Dream” is just that, a dream, which is unattainable. In short, Steinbeck portrays his position of the unrealistic desires for untarnished happiness through the dreams of Candy, Curley’s Wife, and Crooks in Of Mice and Men.

How does one survive in an area where every disability can hurt you in the long run? In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the setting is a ranch in Salinas, California . Throughout the novel, some of the characters struggle with the problem of their disabilities denying them the same opportunities the average man at the ranch has. Steinbeck uses characterization to illustrate the theme of survival of the fittest.

The novels Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Black Boy by Richard Wright, along with the articles “The Story of the ‘Migrant Mother’” by Ben Phelan and “Long-Distance Parenting” by Ana P. Santos, all demonstrate the theme that life is nothing without motivation. For example, in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife demonstrates the importance of motivation:“Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes-all of them nice clothes like they wear.” (Steinbeck 89). Curley’s wife had a dream to be a star, and that dream kept her happy for a while and gave her hope that her future will be better, which let her endure her loneliness with Curley. Similarly, Richard Wright in Black Boy, writes “I would pay two dollars and a half a week

John Stienbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902. His first three books were financial failures and he worked at various kinds of jobs to survive, including fruit picking. His first success was Tortilla Flat in 1935 which was followed by a number of shorter works, leading up to his great masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. In 1962, Stienbeck became the sixth American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. He died at his home in New York on December 1968. I found the writing style of this book to be really slack and basic. The English in this book was elementary, very easy to understand and follow. There were definitely no metaphors or similes. The only figures

Abstract: When Of Mice and Men is read between the lines, it is easy to discover Steinbeck’s objective. Men are destined to be alone, despite their hardships, despite their connections. In order to establish these ideas Steinbeck develops his characters, the relationships they share, and their interactions. Of Mice and Men is considered a classic novel for a reason. Steinbeck does an excellent job of establishing powerful themes while using unparalleled writing techniques. Steinbeck was able to take his upbringing as the common man and turn it into inspiration for novels.

Now matter how big your dream is people might think it’s not going to happen. George and Lennie wanted to own a ranch and have animals George says “ok 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--” (Steinbeck 14). “An’ live off the fatta the lan’,” (Steinbeck 14). Lennie shouted. (Steinbeck 14). George is telling Lennie how their going to live lavish one day. Crooks was alone in his room when Lennie comes in and accidently says his and George's dream, Crooks says are you “Jus’ nuts,” (Steinbeck 69). Lennie refuses that it's not a lie. It shows that it was easy to dream about the American dream even if they were going through the great depression where the majority

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, features a large group of characters who are out on a California farm chasing a goal or who have already given up on a goal. The goals the characters have reflect the hopes of many who were traveling to California during the time of the Great Depression. The characters reflect personal experiences from John Steinbeck?s life, who grew up in California. The characters project the American dream and eventually project the inevitable American failure during the Great Depression. Although characters in John Steinbeck?s Of Mice and Men have self-made high hopes or are inspired by the hopes of others, most of the characters succumb to reality and those hopes become failures.

It is no surprise that the world we live in is a harsh and unforgiving place.