Theme Of The American Dream In Of Mice And Men

If there was a favorable circumstance under which one could endeavour all their hopes and visions, wouldn’t one pursue it? The American Dream was introduced as an interpretation to cause the people of America in the early twentieth century to work tougher. The American Dream is the opportunity to reach the goals one sets for themselves. It is about having your dream job and life one has always fantasized about. The dream is also about having freedom and equality. In the novel, “Of Mice & Men”, John Steinbeck uses symbols and motifs such as the vicious slaughtering of virtuous animals, Crooks’ rubbish bunkhouse and Lennie and George’s deception of an ideal farm to exhibit the perception that materialistic success results in happiness is a major flaw in our thinking about the American dream, and it is this thinking which makes the dream unattainable for many.

Propaganda filters throughout the world to lean people’s views one way or another. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, he uses George and Lennie, Crooks, and Curley’s wife to demonstrate the American Dream. This is unattainable but is their motivation to carry on their daily on the ranch lives. George and Lennie’s actions revolve around their American Dream. In a conversation between George and Lennie they discuss their dream, George states “... We’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres, an’ a cow and some pigs” (Steinbeck, 14). George says this to Lennie to motivate him to keep quiet and out of trouble so they can eventually reach these dreams. The American Dream can be defined as people

A twenty-five percent unemployment rate. People desperate for lodging and food. Families stretching every penny to support themselves. Government trying to solve these problems through reforms and programs. This is what the world in the 1930s was like for Lennie and George, two migrant workers traveling across California, earnestly trying to achieve the American Dream. Even though these dreams seem impossible to accomplish, during the Great Depression a dream was a reason to get out of bed.

People living during the great depression had dreams but on seemed to be the most popular but with their own twist to their dream. The American dream is in the Declaration of Independence stating “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. This dream is called the American Dream. The American dream is a set of standards in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success that can be achieved through hard work and determination. Steinbeck uses the American dream to give each character a goal to work toward to. Each character had their own American Dream. Owning some land so you could live independently, to tend the rabbits or to be playing cards with the other guys.

The video we were asked to write a reflection on discussed The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness which is a book written by Michelle Alexander a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate and Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State University. Michelle Alexander states that although we made tremendous progress with Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s by unifying as a race and fought to seemingly ended the old Jim Crow era by the passing of laws such as the 1965 voting act and Brown V.S Board Of Education which overturned Plessey V.S Ferguson; African Americans went through horrifying ordeals to destroy the old Jim Crow system but it was never eructated but in actuality redesigned in the form of our criminal justice system; but before expounding on Alexander’s New Jim Crow it is essential to discuss what exactly The Old Jim Crow was.

As America was formed, so was the American Dream. People from all over migrated to America in search of this dream. In the novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, many different characters have a glimpse of the American Dream. However, as in real life, these dreams do not always come true. Steinbeck illustrates the improbable chance of the American Dream coming true through the hopelessness of the characters’ conversations.

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

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.

Many of famous figures in our society’s past have spoken their minds about the American Dream, for each and every one of those minds, are a different response. J. G. Ballard once spoke of his American Dream, “The American Dream had run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies. No more. It’s over. It supplies the world with its nightmares now: the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, Vietnam.” The outlook on this dream has changed over the years it has existed, most societies nowadays look onto this as a “curse” or something worse. This dream now is speculated as hurting our home, America. As Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men, the grave story of the American Dream was revealed by main characters, George, Lennie, and Candy. These main characters give us an inside look into what they think the American Dream is.

When we try to chase our dreams, we end up in our own diminutive lonely world. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, has taught readers that the American dream can only ever be accomplished through hard work and determination. More times than others, we are distracted by the dream itself, and don’t chase the reality, which can then lead to high expectations, and without hard determination, that can then failure. In the end, we have been lonely for so long, chasing a dream, that when reality hits us, we become isolated and lonely. For George and Lennie, they have each other, until the American dream seemed too hard to chase.

Of Mice and Men has many recurring themes throughout. One of the main themes is the impossibility of the american dream. There are many characters that showed the theme. The main characters George and Lennie showed it. Also Candy and Crooks shared a similar dream.

The great American dream one of the many themes in Of Mice and Men. Almost every character has this big dream they want to fulfill in life. For example, Lennie and George want to own their own farm, Curley’s wife wants to become an actress, and Crooks wants to be free. All dreams may not come true. All these characters learn that lesson

This essay will uncover both texts and how their authors criticised the American Dream. The American Dream is the process created by the government in the 1930s which kept the workers working at a high standard. This unattainable dream was used by many people throughout America to get them motivated and committed to their work. They all believed there will be a time where the hard work will pay off and they will achieve their dream but in reality, the American Dream is the screen hiding lies and false hope. Both texts also suggest that you must face conflicts before reaching your dream.

Quote #1: "I remember about the rabbits, George.""The hell with the rabbits. That’s all you can ever remember is them rabbits." (1.18-19)

My topic is on how it’s hard to reach the highly admired American dream, and how hard it is to achieve due to segregation. The problems of the Great Depression affected virtually every group of Americans. But unfortunately no group was segregated more than the African Americans. “The most striking development of the Great Depression of 1929 is a profound skepticism of the future of contemporary society among large sections of the American people.” -C.L.R James. This quote makes the topic more interesting by showing how far we have come from the Great Depression era. And that now the American dream isn’t as impossible to achieve. Of Mice and Men can be described as a novella, which is defined as a a short novel or long short story. I