Of Mice and Men and the American Dream
John Stienbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” is about the death of the American dream. George, Lennie and Candy’s dream is to own their own piece of land to work and live independently on. This dream is destroyed by Lennie’s ignorance and Lennie’s strength, which he cannot control. Curley’s wife’s dream is to be a famous Hollywood actress. Her dream is destroyed by her marriage to Curley and the Hollywood director who promised to contact her about her acting career but never has. Crook’s dream is for equality. Racism and the attitudes of others destroy this 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 to get the jack together and we’re going to have a little house and a couple of acres and a cow and some pigs and…” ‘An’ live off the fatal the land’ “We’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit-hunch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter we’ll just say the hell with going’ to work, and we’ll build up the fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain coming’ down on the roof.” (Steinbeck 1937:18)
This quote illustrates the dream have about owning their own land and living independently on it, growing and harvesting their own crops in the vegetable patch, farming cows and goats for milk, pigs for ham and bacon and chickens for eggs. When Candy hears about this dream, he wants to become part of it by offering his saved money to fund the purchase of the piece of land and be able to work and live on the land with George and Lennie. George, Lennie and candy’s dream is destroyed by Lennie’s ignorance and Lennie’s ignorance of his own strength. When Lennie is in a stressful situation, like when he wanted to pat the girl’s dress and she screamed, Lennie panics and doesn’t know what to do. Lennie’s strength and ignorance ruins their dream when Lennie and Curley’s wife are talking in the barn. Curley’s wife invites
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 to get the jack together and we’re going to have a little house and a couple of acres and a cow and some pigs and…” ‘An’ live off the fatal the land’ “We’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit-hunch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter we’ll just say the hell with going’ to work, and we’ll build up the fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain coming’ down on the roof.” (Steinbeck 1937:18)
This quote illustrates the dream have about owning their own land and living independently on it, growing and harvesting their own crops in the vegetable patch, farming cows and goats for milk, pigs for ham and bacon and chickens for eggs. When Candy hears about this dream, he wants to become part of it by offering his saved money to fund the purchase of the piece of land and be able to work and live on the land with George and Lennie. George, Lennie and candy’s dream is destroyed by Lennie’s ignorance and Lennie’s ignorance of his own strength. When Lennie is in a stressful situation, like when he wanted to pat the girl’s dress and she screamed, Lennie panics and doesn’t know what to do. Lennie’s strength and ignorance ruins their dream when Lennie and Curley’s wife are talking in the barn. Curley’s wife invites