The American Dream Portrayed in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck vs the Reality of a Migrant Worker

A Comparison of the American Dream Portrayed in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and the Reality of a Migrant Worker

Of Mice and Men is a novel written by John Steinbeck in 1937, this

novel concentrates on the lives of migrant workers. Steinbeck's

purpose is to show the reality of achieving the American Dream- as the

title suggests. 'To a Mouse… The best laid schemes o' Mice and Men,

Gang aft agley,' is the source of the book's title. It translates

roughly into 'no matter how well we may plan the future, things often

go wrong.

The American dream posed the idea that every individual - through hard

work and personal sacrifice could achieve success, by being their own

boss on their own land. The American government started this concept;

they encouraged the idea by giving out free land. But unfortunately

the Wall Street Crash crushed the dream in 1929. The U.S entered a

period of economic depression, and during this period hoards of

migrant workers came to California in search of work, the dream on

their minds. Most of these migrants were men who traveled alone; they

had no friends or family around. They moved from ranch to ranch

working for a short time at each never able to settle. They worked

very hard in poor conditions on poor pay, therefore Migrant workers

had to dream of a better future in order to survive. Without dreams no

one would have a reason to keep going.

Steinbeck's main task is to show the reality of a migrant workers

life, to achieve this he must make the story seem as real-life as

possible. Steinbeck does various things in the story to create an

atmosphere of reality. One thing is he uses a geographical setting-
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...ieves he will never be accepted, he sees that his dream was just a

dream. Curley's wife dream is sadly over when she dies. Lennie has

killed his puppy by stroking it to hard and Curley's wife walks in.

Lennie reveals his liking to stroke soft things so she lets him stroke

her hair. Lennie strokes too hard on her hair and Curley's Wife starts

to shout, so Lennie covers up her mouth and as she begins to struggle

he shakes her too hard which results in her breaking her neck. Candy

faced his worst fear once Lennie had killed Curley's wife - that the

dream wouldn't go through after all. John Steinbeck's point was to

show that no matter how hard you plan the future something is likely

to go wrong. These people need a dream in order to survive - to look

forward to something. But in reality their dreams are unlikely to

happen.