The Dream Farm In George Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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.

Very often, people leave behind their dreams for more practical solutions to dismal situations. In Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men, dreams often serve the purpose of giving characters new opportunities. Dreams are also typically unattainable, yet characters in the novel spend much of their time trying to achieve them. Because the Depression era was so destitute, Lennie and George’s dream is a positive distraction from their seemingly hopeless situation. These reasons expose a deeper, more tragic truth of the era. Lennie and George's dream affirms that dreams are often unattainable distractions from real life.

In the novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the setting takes place on a ranch in Soledad, California during the Great Depression. George and Lennie are the best of friends; therefore, they are travelling together to find a job. George is skinny and smart, Lennie is big and strong. Lennie has a mental disability and George guides and protects him. George does all the talking for Lennie and they get hired for the job at the ranch. George and Lennie have this dream of living off the fatta the lan’. George and Lennie face many obstacles as they reach for their dream. John Steinbeck uses the signposts, contrasts and contradictions and again and again to develop the themes Dreams and Loneliness.

To them it was a dream but to me it would have been a nightmare. The book took place place in the Great Depression and the two main characters of the book, George and Lennie, set out to make a living for themselves by working on a ranch. The ranch the two boys were working on was only a temporary plan before the got enough money to get there own farm and fulfill their american dream. The book Of Mice and Men by “John Steinbeck” shows three different conflicts racism, loneliness, mortality.

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is set during the Great Depression, whereas the American Dream is a crucial belief that is a part of the itinerant workers’ life. As itinerant workers, people worked from ranch to ranch, hoping to achieve their dream. Besides the hard work, the author Steinbeck reveals the tragic death of Lennie at the end of the story. A number of characters like George, Lennie, Curley and Curley’s wife are all responsible for the death of Lennie at the end of the story, however, George, Lennie himself and Curley’s wife are the most culpable.

A white picket fence, a family with kids, a dog, a pristine house, a bountiful garden, to live off of the land. This is what most Americans in the 1930s hoped for, sadly it was a dream rarely fulfilled. In Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice & Men each character has a dream that is important in influencing their actions and opinions.

In the late 1930’s novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck follows the lives of two men and how they live on one another to endure the hardships nurtured from the Great Depression. George and Lennie, the main characters, venture together along the rolling hills of the western United States, looking out for one another and being there for each other even in the hardest times looking for work to pursue their lifetime dream. Lennie, a strong bold man and a hard worker, is handicapped with a mental disability while George, on the other hand, is a slim, but strong man who has taken care of Lennie ever since his Aunt Clara had perished. Both the men have big dreams of living on a beautiful farm together and raising farm animals such as chickens,

The novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’ was written by John Steinback, whom depicts how life was like for men and women in the 1930’s. From the outset, we were shown through the title itself ‘Of Mice and Men’ that the novel wouldn’t end well for George and Lennie. As this title was inspired by a Scottish poet whom said in his famous poem ‘To a Mouse’ ‘…the best laid schemes o’ Mice and Men, Gang aft agley’, conveys how no matter how well we may plan the future, things will often go wrong and obstacles will appear. Additionally, despite the American dream – the lack of hope, violence and harshness surrounding the men; gave a clear view into the lives of migrant workers such as George and Lennie. Portraying how the American dream is deemed unattainable for the men at the ranch, whom are destined to fall prey to a vicious cycle of harshness and violence – unable to escape from the world that they are living in.

“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.

Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men in early 1930s and it was published in 1937. During 1930s, America was still suffering from the lack of steady jobs, which made peoples have to travel from town to town to able to seek short term employment. Of Mice and Men based on Steinbeck’s own experience, it is a short book which all the events are happened over the weekend. The title of the novel is taken from Robert Burns’ poem written in November 1785 which has a line: ‘The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang agley’. Aft gang agley means ‘often go wrong’.

Additionally, Of Mice and Men depicts the broken dream of the two protagonists, Lennie and George. The two men, whose dream is to own a farm of their own, despise working on ranches as George denotes in his statement, “For two bits I'd shove out of here. If we can get jus' a few dollars in the poke we'll shove off and go up the American River and pan gold. We can make maybe a couple of dollars a day there, and we might hit a pocket…We gotta stay” (Steinbeck 33). George fantasizes about leaving the ranch, but he knows that both he and Lennie will not be able to survive without a job. Candy, also a worker on the Californian farm, offers his life savings to Lennie and George so as to be included in their plan to buy a place of their own. This shows the dream of the workers, who hope to leave employment and have farms of their own. Now, the line “Nowhere else to go/ Work satisfies” further demonstrates that there is no other choice but to work and keep up a stake as that is the only way to survive. Any desire to give up work to lead an effortless lifestyle is disregarded, as many people of this time, the Great Depression, are realists. They understand that chasing a dream unrealistic of this time period is foolish and without a doubt will end badly.

The book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck depicts the american dream by telling a story of two friends named Lennie and George who share a dream of having their own farm. Lennie is a more sensitive character who doesn’t have much of a brain and George is a very independent and strong character. In the text Steinbeck was successful at making Lennie sympathetic because he shows with different events in the book how Lennie reacts to them based on his character traits.

gives a damn about us…. An' why? Because I got you to look after me,

The dream farm symbolises the American Dream that Lennie and George yearn to achieve. The dream that both protagonists, George and Lennie want is to have their own piece of land, where they can grow their own crops. This dream is so desperately wanted because of the freedom given to the owners of the ranch. Background character, Candy also latches onto the vision of owning a few acres of land."They fell into a silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true." At this point, Candy had realised that his money could make his dreams come true, as well as George and Lennie's. It seemed that money was the difference between a dream and a plan, but to Lennie on some level, it all seemed like a story.Therefore Steinbeck's use of symbolism of the dream farm is explored through the idea of the American

John Steinbeck wrote ‘Of Mice and Men’ to show how hard life was for migrant ranch workers during the time of the Great Depression and how they were often exploited by their employers. In showing how George and Lennie’s dream of owning their own piece of land did not come true, Steinbeck explores a wider theme, criticising the idea of the American Dream. The American Dream tells people that there is ‘opportunity for each... regardless of the fortuitous circumstance of birth and position. Steinbeck criticises this as these ranch workers were given few opportunities. Settings play a very important part in the novel as they pinpoint clear times and places giving a sense of realism to the story, but they are also used to create atmosphere.