Most of the characters in Of mice and Men, at one point or another, admit to dreaming of a different, more successful life. Before her accidental death, Curly’s wife, the symbol of temptation in the novel, has dreams of her own. She wanted badly to become an actress of work in show business.Crooks, bitter as he is, allows himself the pleasant fantasy of hoeing a patch of garden on Lennie’s Farm one day. Candy latches on desperately to George’s vision of owning a couple of acres of land of his own. Before the action of the story begins, difficult circumstances have robbed most of the characters of these wishes. Curley’s wife, for example, has resigned herself to an unfulfilling marriage with someone whom she does not love because of her mother. What makes all of these dreams typically American is that the dreamers wish for untarnished happiness and for the freedom to follow their own desires. The reality is, that during the Great Depression the unemployment rate along with the Dust Bowl made having the American Dream un-realistically impossible.George and Lennie’s dream of owning a farm became more likely as time went on throughout the story which caused a great deal of hope within the small group of characters. Candy is a much older man, who fears unemployment. He too dreams of a better life. Candy explains to the George and Lennie how he hasn’t much time left before he’s canned’ with no place to go. Candy offers a large sum of money to the two and asks only to live there until he dies. George and Lennie’s dream of owning a farm became more likely as time went on throughout the story which caused a great deal of hope within the small group of characters. George and Lennie’s dream of owning a farm, would enable them to sustain themselves and most importantly offer them protection from the intolerable world. Their journey, which awakens George to the impossibility of this dream, sadly proves that the bitter Crooks is right: Such paradises of freedom, contentment, and safety are not to be found in this world. Hopes and dreams serve as the Main Plot.
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