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Essay on american history and the great depression
The great depression time period
Concept of the american dream
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Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan states that, "in the state of nature mans life is nasty, brutish and short". In depression era America, no greater truth could be said. There were millions unemployed, largely unskilled and living on the margins of society. The lowest of the low were the migrant labourers travelling from place to place trying to scratch a living. They often had to travel illegally by freight car with all its consequent dangers. Their life expectancy was low, crime was rampant and despair was a fellow traveller. This is the setting of John Steinbeck's, 'Of Mice and Men'. The novel explores the predatory nature of human existence. It explores loneliness, isolation and friendship. A major theme is that of the illusionary nature of 'Dreams'. In particular, 'The American Dream'. To paraphrase Robert Burns-"The best laid plans of mice and men go awry". This is a bleak statement and it is at the centre of the novel's action. George and Lennie have the dream of owning their own ranch and living a free independent life; they would be self-reliant and most of all they would be safe from a harsh and hostile world. Other characters in the book also try to buy into their dream ie, Candy and Crooks. Ultimately, the dream unravels and like a Greek Tragedy, the ending is terrible but also predictable. Even though there is tragedy there-what Steinbeck seems to be saying is that the human spirit can and will endure despite immense privations. The will to live and endure will always overcome defeated hopes. The Dream The novel is an exposé of the harsh and vicious reality of the American Dream'. George and Lennie are poor homeless migrant workers doomed to a life of wandering and toil. They will be abused and exploited; they are in fact a model for all the marginalized poor of the world. Injustice has become so much of their world that they rarely mention it. It is part of their psyche. They do not expect to be treated any different no matter where they go. George and Lennie live in a hopeless present but they somehow try to keep a foot in an idealized future. They dream of one day running their own ranch, safe and answerable to no one. Others such as Curley's wife dreams of being a movie star, Crooks, of hoeing his own patch and Candy's couple of acres'.The dream ends with the death of Lennie.
“The best laid schemes o’ mice and men, Gang aft agley often go wrong, And leave us nought but grief and pain, For promised joy!” Robert Burn’s quote makes us believe that even the best laid out plans for joy often go wrong and brings us grief and pain. George and Lennie’s plan was for a better future. The future where they didn’t take commands from someone; where they took care of themselves. As George and Lennie keep talking about the farm and more people joining in on the plan, it looks like it might happen. But with the foreshadowing through this quote: “Look, Lennie. I want you to look around here. You can remember this place, can’t you? The ranch is about a quarter mile up that way. Just follow the river. (15)” This quote foreshadows Lennie messing up and it creating a larger gap between the dream farm and them. When Lennie kills Curley's wife, the idea of the dream farm slowly starts to disappear. As George finds out about what had happen, he realizes that plan for a farm was just an idea, an illusion. “—I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would”
A friendship is not all they have together, Lennie and George have dreams. Lennie and George have worked up the idea of owning their own piece of land together. Lennie wants to tend the rabbits (Steinbeck 11) and George just wants to be his own boss (Steinbeck 14). The only problem with their dream is that it is unrealistic. They cannot buy land to tend and just go days without tending it because they do not want to. Like many traveling farm hands during the 1930s, George and Lennie think they could work up enough money to buy their own place and not give a “hoot” about anyone but their selves. Although their dream is unattaina...
The main cause of George and Lennie's lonesomeness and that of all the people at the ranch was a lack of a home. The only thing that kept the two men going was their friendship with each other and the hope to soon get a place of their own. In the novel George and Lennie mention what their dream place is going to be like: "Someday we're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house, and a couple of acres and a cow and some pigs and ---" (Steinbeck 16). Throughout the book the reference to having a place of their own is stressed. It is a deeper dream for Lennie than George because he is always asking to talk about it. It is here where the friendship between both men is starting to develop as they share the same basic dream.
George and Lennie have to continue to move around the country looking for work until Lennie screws up again. The instability of work only makes it that much harder for them to complete their dream of a farm of their own. Candy’s participation in the dream of the farm upgrades the dream into a possible reality. As the tending of rabbits comes closer to happening fate curses them with the accidental death of Curley’s wife. The end of their wishful thinking is summed up by Candy’s question on page 104, “Then-it’s all off?”
George is almost certain is will happen, as he wishes for 'a little house' with a 'few acres' of land to grow their own food. This is also important as it shows that in 1930s America, the main goal was to achieve stability, to be able to rely on yourself and not be worried about getting 'canned' everyday and to live, not only survive on the bare minimum. However, even George's simple dreams seem incredibly unrealistic and Crooks sums this up the best as he says 'nobody never gets to heaven and nobody never gets no land' which shows how many people attempted to acheive the same thing, to achieve stability, however no one ever did. At the end of the novel, George's dream comes to an abrupt stop as he has to kill Lennie. These final moments show how short life in 1930s America was, and how unfair situations were. Even though Candy still offered to give George his savings, George chose the solitude life of a ranch worker as Lennie was part of his dream, and how he couldn't even seem to reconsider living the American dream without him shows the reader how much Lennie meant to him.
In the whole of the novella, Steinbeck uses a great deal of imagery in his writing, Therefore, helping us to understand the settings of the novel in much more detail. Within the first page of the book, Steinbeck uses a great deal of words and phrases that contribute to the recurring theme of loneliness. The name of the town in which he bases the entire novel is ‘Soledad’ which means ‘Lonely’ In Spanish. This is a key part of the novel, as it means the whole book’s surroundings, (no matter where it is), is based around that one meaning of ‘Loneliness’. Further on, in the first page Steinbeck describes to the reader the surroundings of the town, he uses a range of detailed vocabulary to emphasise the towns’ Isolation and Loneliness.
The cool breeze stroked my skin as I flew through the cozy clouds. I was flying above rocky mountains, vast oceans, and colossal skyscrapers, but when I opened my eyes, I was in a classroom chained to a sturdy desk, hearing my second grade teacher give a lecture about American history. While humans tend to anticipate for the day their dreams will become their reality, most people will struggle to accept the way their lives are because their most treasured dreams will only be alive in their fantasies.
The American Dream is often thought of as the key to happiness, usually defined as the thing that one wants to achieve in their lifetime. However, it does not always end the way one may wish. When one attempts to achieve it, he risks the possibility of failure. In many fictional novels, this theme is displayed. In novels and in real life, there are continuous interruptions with one’s dreams. Although the American Dream, however one may define it, promises hope for people and characters from all backgrounds, it is impossible to achieve.
George and Lennie's dream is to buy their own land and live off it. Candy wants to live with them and the stable buck says to ask him whenever they need help. George and Lennie has this dream since they were working up in weed.
The author foreshadows that George, Lennie and Candy will lose their chance at getting their dream farm. When Candy is speaking to George he says, “You an’ me can get that little place, can’t we” and George just looks away and Candy knew. This is foreshadowing because Candy knew that they would not be getting the place because of how George reacted. Also when George said, “I think I know’d from the very first” and looks very
Each character in the novel has their own interpretation of the ‘American Dream – the pursuit of happiness’ as they all lack happiness due to the careless nature of American society during the Jazz Age. The American Dreams seems almost non-existent to those whom haven’t already achieved it.
The biggest dream throughout the story is for George and Lennie to have enough money to go and buy a farm of their own. But then Lennie does something that he can’t change back or hide from, and all hope is lost for him and George to have a farm when George does what he never thought he’d do. “And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger… Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering.” (page 106) This one final scene symbolized all of George’s aspirations, hopes, dreams, ambitions, anything he had, diminishing before his eyes. He made a point earlier in the book, “ I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says, ‘jump in.’... well I ain’t done nothin like that no more” (40). He promised himself he wouldn’t hurt Lennie again, he took it upon himself to keep Lennie safe. But George fired that last bullet and killed Lennie, stripping himself of all his hope and ambitions. The other main ambition that was crushed in this story has to do with Lennie and his rabbits. “We’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs… An’ have rabbits!...” (14) This is a recurring event throughout the book; they talk about their future dreams, and Lennie tells everyone he meets about the rabbits he's gonna have, but again that all changes when Lennie messes up badly and kills Curley’s wife. The story displays the reader the visual of, “She struggled violently under his hands… “Don’t you go yellin’,” he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.” (91) This visual can help you see where Lennie’s dream of ever handling another living being again diminishes because if he can’t keep an
In the very beginning of the book it becomes almost immediately apparent that George and Lennie are running from something, and that their style of life is leading up to unfortunate events for the two of them. When the pair are on the run and they stop on their road to the new ranch and they camp out in a setting that becomes a very important aspect of the story. George mentions their plan about owning their own...
Although Lennie could not live like a normal adult, he still dreams of a better life filled with the things he desired. Lennie constantly badgers George about the story of the farm where they hope to eventually reside. Lennie sees a place where he faces no adversities, and Lennie dreams of tending the rabbits, stroking their fur and feeding them handfuls of alfalfa. “When they have their farm, as George tells him at the end, Lennie will not need to be scared of bad things any more, and he can tend the rabbits and pet them… Their farm is a place where they can live together, have animals and, in general, feel safe. Lennie has little memory, but the story of their dream is one he knows by heart” (Lennie). In a child- like vision, Lennie still sees the farm he and George often dream about and discuss. Lennie will never forget about the farm until they have achieved their goal. Lennie realizes the farm will be a place of leisure where he can simply tend the rabbits. Lennie always believes and chases after their nearly impossible American
Another example of a contradiction Steinbeck uses in his essay that I have personally witnessed is, "We spend our lives in motor cars, yet most of us - a great many of us at least - do not know enough about a car to look in the gas tank when the motor fails." I observed this when my grandma's car "broke down" once. She had her car towed to the mechanic, and after about a week of it being examined, the mechanic called my grandma and told her that the only problem with the car was that it was out of gas. If we were living the American dream, would my grandma be so lazy as to have her car stop running and never look at the gas gauge? Would she have spent hundreds of dollars getting her car "fixed" when five dollars would have been suitable for gas? The answer to both questions is no.