Hopes and dreams play a very important role in this story. The main characters that were majorly affected by this include Candy who hoped to get a home with George and Lennie, Curley's wife who wanted to be an actor, Curley who wanted to pursue a career as a professional boxer, and Lennie and George wanted to get their own farm and live peacefully without lennie having issues. George, Lennie, and Candy all shared the same dream of getting their own farm. This was there “long term goal” that they had for themselves, george made this goal to keep Lennie happy even though he knew it wouldn't happen, but he then convinced himself that it would happen. “ ‘O.K. Someday we're gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a gow and some pigs and----’ ‘An’ live off the fatta the lan’ Lennie shouted.”(Steinbeck 14). In this scene George is telling Lennie the story of the farm they would get. “Lennie began to cry with fright, ‘Oh! Please don't do none of …show more content…
Her dreams were close to being achieved on multiple occasions because she was asked to be put in movies twice.”She went on with her story quickly, before she should be interrupted. ‘’Nother time i met a guy, an’ he was in pitchers. Went out to the Riverside Dance Palace with him. He says he was gonna put me in movies. Says i'm a natural.’,”(Steinbeck 88) This is where Curley’s wife reveals what she wanted, hoped and could have been. “Lennie began to cry with fright, ‘Oh! Please don't do none of that,’ he begged. ‘George gonna say i did a bad thing. He ain't gonna let me tend no rabbits.’” later Steinbeck wrote, “Then Lennie grew angry.’Now don’t,’ he said. ‘I don’t want you to yell. You gonna get me in trouble jus’ like George says you will. Now don’t you do that.’”(Steinbeck 91) This is what lead up to Curley’s wife’s death from lennie breaking her neck, this is how her dreams ultimately failed because you can't act if your
“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”
George and Lennie's ultimate goal is to "get the jack together," buy a few acres of land they can call their own, "an' live off the fatta the lan' (pg. 14)." George talks in great depth about how their dream house is going to have individual rooms, a kitchen with a fat iron stove, and an orchard. But, George only recites this yarn when he wants to get Lennie calmed down. Lennie has the mentality of an 8 year old, the memory of a senile 80 year old, and only desires to tend rabbits. George fully understands that Lennie can easily be manipulated. Even though the dream to have a piece of land is shared, George knows that by himself he cannot amass a large enough "stake," to buy it himself (pg. 33)." Just as the boss thought, George was "takin' his pay away from him (pg. 22)."
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.
Curley’s wife represents her broken dreams of becoming an actress. Lennie and George represent a dream in progress, it is uncertain if their plans will work out as intended or plummet before takeoff, even Crooks and Candy see the appeal in Lennie and George’s fantasy and join them. The dream in progress gives hope to Lennie and George and continued to even after losing previous jobs. Curley’s wife is constantly restricted, she married Curley so that she would no longer be alone but now is in the same state as before, just on a ranch of men. She tries to talk to the other men but she is then seen as "jail bait" and avoided, making her even lonelier. Her dream of being an actress has failed because she chose a quick way out and married Curley. She is now living in her failure and has no longer a dream to aim for. Perhaps the most important part of the story is the the part in which Lennie has accidentally killed the puppy given to him by Slim, and is grieving over him in the barn, “This ain’t no bad thing like I got to go hide in the brush. Oh! no. This ain’t. I’ll tell George I foun’ it dead.” He unburied the puppy and inspected it, and he stroked it from ears to tail. He went on sorrowfully, “But he’ll know. George always knows. He’ll say, ‘You done it. Don’t try to put nothing over on me.’ An’ he’ll say, ‘Now jus’ for that you don’t get to tend no rabbits!” (Steinbeck, 85) He feels powerless to his own strength, he believes that he will never achieve his dream because of his mistake. George and the other men are out once again and the only person who comes to his emotional aid is none other than Curley’s wife. “Don’t you worry about talkin’ to me. Listen to the guys yell out there. They got four dollars bet in that tenement. None of them ain’t gonna leave till it’s over.” “If George sees me talkin’ to you he’ll give me hell,” Lennie said cautiously.” (Steinbeck, 85) He
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.
You have to dream before your dreams can come true”- A.P.J Abdul Kalam. John Steinbeck seems to suggest with his tales. John Steinbeck seems to suggest in his novella Of Mice and Men That progress can’t be made without strong focus on your dreams. This novella rings throughout the entire story and it doesn't just touch the main characters it spans throughout the entire story. So let's jump in and find out why I think that
Lennie is stuck in a childhood state, and is the main reason the farm exists. “Now Candy spoke his greatest fear, ‘You a’me can go there an’ live nice, can’t we, george?’...George said softly, ‘-I think I know 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.’” They realize that without Lennie, there is no farm. As Lennie dies, so does the dream of a farm.
George and Lennie have a dream, even before they arrive at their new job on the ranch, to make enough money to live “off the fatta the land” and be their own bosses. Lennie will then be permitted to tend the rabbits. Candy, upon hearing about the dream, wants to join them so that he will not be left alone, especially after they killed his dog. From the 17th Century, when the first settlers arrived, immigrants dreamed of a better life in America. People went there to escape from persecution or poverty, and to make a new life for themselves.
Candy didn't have anything so he wanted grow old on the ranch with George and Lennie (pg59-60) but then Lennie kills Curly's Wife and his dream dies (pg.94). Candy's dreams end in a pessimistic outlook because all he wanted got destroyed leaving him with nothing. Crooks dream was to be respected and not looked at for his color and wanted to live on the ranch with Curly Lennie and George (pg.64). Even though he wanted this he noticed by what Curly's wife said to him that his dream will never be achieved, so he changes his mind (pg.
...deal with them that together, they could “get a big stake” (63) in order to buy a “little place an’ live on the fatta the lan’” (63). Candy says he would “cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some” (67). However, after Lennie accidently kills Curley’s wife, Candy in “his greatest fear” (107) asks George if they could still “get that little place” (107). But he knew it was no, and right at that moment his American Dream comes to an end. Therefore if Candy would be all by him following his American Dream without depending on George and Lennie, he would have been successful.
a better way of life - but something always seems to get in the way of
George and Lennie both share an incredible dream that they both need to work towards. They desire to own a ranch so they can “live off the fatta’ lan’,” (Steinbeck 14) and be successful.
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
George started this novel with a dream of living an ideal life with Lennie. “We’re gonna live off the fatta the land,” he’d say. He wanted to go somewhere off the grid with Lennie so that they’d both be safe and not have to worry about other people or Lennie getting in trouble. He wants to escape the harshness of the world that the two live in so that they can both be safe and happy. “I’d be bringin’ in my own crops ‘stead of doing all the work and not getting what comes outta the ground,” he hopes to leave the life of the migrant worker and own his own ranch and be his own boss. As the novel goes on he realises that any of this is probably not possible. No matter how much he saves up he will never be able to get enough money to buy and sustain his dream farm and Lennie is going to keep getting in trouble.