Analyzing Themes In John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men'

“Of Mice and Men” is a short story written by John Steinbeck. In “Of Mice of Men”, George and Lennie, the main characters, are forced to run away from Weed after Lennie gets in a mix up with a girl and is accused of rape. They end up getting a new job in Soledad to work on a ranch. While there as ranch hands and migrant workers, George and Lennie form good relationships with some, but bad relationships with others. Lennie has tons of physical strength stored deep inside of him that he doesn’t fully understand that he has. With this strength, he unintentionally kills a mouse, breaks Curley’s hand, kills his new puppy, and kills Curley’s wife. Without the option to migrate to another ranch for work, George is forced to kill Lennie for the other men were out to get him. Ever since the beginning of George and Lennie’s adventure they had their dream in mind as a “light of the end the tunnel.” George comforts Lennie with this dream of theirs as he puts the barrel of the gun to the back of his head and pulls the trigger. Dreams play a very important role in this novel. In “Of Mice and Men”, Steinbeck uses failed and elusive dreams to show how captivating life can be when chasing the American Dream.

Soon’s he got back to Hollywood. He was gonna write to me about it.” She looked closely at Lennie to see whether she was impressing him. “I never got that letter,” she said.” (Steinbeck 89)

Everyone has dreams, big and small. When one dreams, there is a scent of whimsical hope in the air mixed with the powerful drive for success to obtain their luminous goals. But, many times these luscious dreams end up in grief and pain instead of a promised joy due to the hurdles in life, such as the certain circumstances that society professes or the flaws in a person that restrains them from their aspirations. The writer, John Steinbeck, incorporates this ideology in his novella, Of Mice and Men by creating three pivotal characters. Lennie, Crooks, and George all have schemes that go wrong, and yet hope to illustrate their desires of fulfilling their American Dream and to be prosperous for their own independent purposes.

“And when they gone, Candy squatted down in the hay and watched the face of Curley’s wife. ‘Poor bastard,’ he said softly.” Sometimes through false hope, we tend to get to sucked into unrealistic dreams which can lead us to becoming a victim of our own vulnerabilities. Throughout the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, false hopes and dreams have impacted our society and how some people live their lives today. John Steinbeck uses metaphors and foreshadowing to show how false hopes and dreams can sometimes result in something not as great as it was once believed to be, which can ultimately impact our society.

Have you ever dreamed of becoming someone important or doing something exciting and memorable? Would you give up or refuse to let go of your dream until you achieve it? Has that obsessive under-minded your success? Many people have dreams that they want to accomplish, but there are obstacles individuals have to cross over in order to achieve their goals, such as facing reality. In the book of Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, the story is a tale of two drifters working from farm to farm, trying to make a living, and save some money to have their own place someday, which is their dream during the Great Depression. The characters face the hardships

The most important dream in this novel is that of the two main characters Lennie and George. They

“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an' men / Gang aft agley” – Robert Burns. In other words, “The best-laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry”. It is believed that John Steinbeck took the title of his novel “Of Mice and Men” from this stanza from the Scots poem “To a Mouse”. The title of this novel reveals much about the story because it speaks of the plans or dreams that everyone, even mice, have. In fact, in the novel "Of Mice and Men," one of the main themes is "dreams."

The novel Mice and Men of the most beautiful Steinbeck novels that he mixes between the suffering of farmers workers that they embrace their imagination the dream to own a farm it ends in tragedy painful that it increases the sense of injustice, Of Mice and Men provide satire of the concept of the American dream and the consequent of the suffering of selfishness that leads to unfortunate and sad end as is the case with George, Lennie and Curley's wife, Crooks, and Candy.

Ever since humanity has come into existence, the world has allowed dreams to blossom into beautiful flowers or be rejected and die like a fly swatted in a household. Each dream may end in a success or a tragedy, but it is up to the discretion of the cruel, but rewarding world humans inhabit. In the novel of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, a myriad of characters all have dreams that they passionately want to fulfill. Curley’s wife, who remains unnamed in the book, has a dream of becoming Hollywood’s biggest star. Crooks, the black stable-hand only dreams of being able to have friends and be seen as an equal to others. Lennie and George are a pair of migrant workers who want to live the American dream and have their own ranch. Each of these characters’ dreams were all torn down by the world, illustrated by Steinbeck as a cruel place where dreams cannot come true, no matter how passionate a person may be.

Married women like Curly’s wife were always tied down to their husband and were discriminated against for talking with other men. This only makes Curly’s

Of Mice and Men is a novel written by John Steinbeck. In the novel, one theme is the “American dream.” The American dream is important to the novel, because it reflects life in 1937. In the past there was a constant struggle to achieve dreams and goals, because only the fittest could survive. The theme of the American Dream is able to contribute to the overall meaning of the work.

When Curley’s wife marries Curley, she gave her dream up of being in the movies, being a celebrity, and being in many pictures. In the final moments of Curley’s wife’s life, she expresses her dream and says, “‘Coulda been in the movies an’ had nice clothes- all them nice clothes like they wear. An I coulda sat in them big hotels an’ had pitchers took of me. When they had them previews I coulda went to them, an’ spoke in the radio, an’ it wouldn'ta cost a cent because I was in the pitcher.

This is shown from one of her quotes “I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely. ”(p.98) Nonetheless, the men on the ranch do not feel sympathy for her, despite they know that curly is undesirable and instead treating her with hatred and don’t speak to her, so she becomes more desperate. This displays that Curly’s wife is in a desperate moment to find someone to discard the feeling of being lonely

Every day, people are faced with responsibility. Some thrive under the pressure while others crumble. Responsibility is a sign of independence. Teenagers with greater amounts of responsibility feel freedom from their parents. In the same case, too much responsibility can put more stress on that freedom-seeking teen and can have devastating effects. John Steinbeck shows the theme that in life, responsibility is best taken in moderation in his novel Of Mice and Men.

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.