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Power In The American Dream In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Power is the key element in achieving the American Dream. In the time period in which John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is set (the 1930s), this power was dependent on money, class, gender, and race. Power represented everything and the proletariat could not get any power. In today's society, the relationship between the American Dream and power has changed. Anybody can gain the power to change their lives and achieve the American Dream, regardless of wealth, gender, or race. There are many differences between the ideas of power in the American Dream when comparing the society in Of Mice and Men with modern society. First, there have been changes in the power dynamic between bosses and employees since the 1930s. Second, in the 1930s males dominated females but today we have more gender equality. Third, the value of white supremacy was dominant in the 1930s, but it has considerably decreased since that time.
There has been a change in the power dynamic between bosses and employees from the 1930s to nowadays. In the past, employees were treated like the private property of the boss. There was no job security for the employees. When the employees got old or could not be working anymore, the boss just kicked them out. In the book Of Mice and men, “Candy said that ‘I got hurt four years ago,’ he said. ‘They'll can me purty soon. Jus' as soon as I can't swamp out no bunkhouses they'll put me on the county" (Steinbeck 29). This quotation exemplifies how the bosses treated their old

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