The Role Of Dreams In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men is a novel in which John Steinbeck, the author, portrays many broken dreams. Steinbeck is a famous author known for many books like “The Grapes of Wrath,” and “The Long Valley.” The book was published in 1994 by Penguin Classics. The book is geared towards teenagers and above. The genre of the book is considered novella. George and Lennie, the main characters, show what it’s like to live as a migrant worker in the early 1900’s. In “Of Mice and Men” Steinbeck shows dreams can easily be broken by character’s actions and the world they were born into. It is clear from the beginning of the story that Lennie’s mental strength does not compare to his physical strength by any means. This will eventually lead to the downfall of his
We can see one of the main people who never believes in dreams is Crooks. Crooks has been around the ranch for so long, that he’s heard and seen plans like George and Lennie’s, and just knows it won’t work out. “I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads . . . every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head”(72). Crooks is the only one that knows, their great plans won’t ever work, but no one will listen to him… because he’s black. Crook was the only one right about their dream, but that never appealed to Candy, George, and Lennie because what white guy would listen to a black with a crooked back? Even though Slim had some faith in them that it would happen, we could tell he wanted them to stay at the ranch. Slim needs them at the ranch because they’re both great workers and they can get jobs done quickly and stay out of trouble. But what intrigued him the most is how George and Lennie travel together and they’re not even related. "Ain't many guys travel around together, I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other"(34). This quote explains a lot about the book and why lots of dreams are broken. We can see that a lot of people don’t have someone to fall back on when the dreams start taking the downfall, well George and Lennie
Even though George sounds like he treats Lennie badly most of the time, we know that George wouldn’t have it any other way, even if he wish to do so some times. “No, Lennie. I ain't mad. I never been mad, an' I ain't now. That's a thing I want ya to know”(103). George hasn’t ever been mad with Lennie, he just know that telling them the story of their dreams would always make Lennie happy. In reality, George knew the dream would eventually be broken even if he had tried to pursue it. We can also tell George takes to heart about never being able to pursue the dream with Lennie at the end after he kills him. George is deeply saddened knowing that he will never be able to have ranch with Lennie, so Lennie could tend the rabbits. “Never you mind, a guy got to sometimes”(104). We can tell Slim feels George’s agony within this quote. As it states in the book that he puts his arm around him as he sits down by him. Slim knew that if anyone was going to do it, It was going to be George, knowing that George never wanted to shoot and kill his best friend. As we can see, broken dreams is a reoccurring event in many characters in Of Mice and Men. This event is not just important in this book, but is still seen in the world today. Many dreams are broken today, just as the migrant workers and most people in the early 1900’s were. Many people nowadays take so much risk in their everyday lives that they are almost asking for part