Comparing The American Dream In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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The American Dream In the novella “Of Mice and Men”, written by John Steinbeck, George Milton, one of the main characters, is a little, clever man who watches over his large, naive partner Lennie Small. Together they share a dream of one day owning a tiny piece of land and living “off the fatta the lan’”. Steinbeck uses the American Dream to motivate the characters and give them hope that they can one day escape their dreaded lives, while also showing the reader that the American Dream is unreachable. To the characters in the story, the American Dream represents freedom, happiness, and the right to do whatever they want, whenever they want. For example, when George tells Lennie about their future dream farm, George says, “And when it rains …show more content…

Its main purpose is to motivate and give the characters something to work for. For instance, when George, Candy, and Lennie realize they only have a month of work left until they can afford the dream farm, George says, “Look, if me an’ Lennie work a month an’ don’t spen’ nothing, we’ll have a hundred bucks. That’d be four fifty. I bet we could swing her for that. Then you an’ Lennie could go get her started an’ I’d get a job an’ make up the res’, an’ you could sell eggs and stuff like that”(59-60). From this quote, the reader can see that the dream farm inspires them to work and gives them hope for something greater than they already have. They center everything they do around one day being able to afford a nice piece of land and live prosperously on it. The farm gives the characters a purpose and a goal to work towards. Additionally, when Candy tells Crooks about the dream farm, he says, “Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much. Jus’ som’thin’ that was his. Som’thin’ he could live on and there couldn't nobody throw him off of it. I never had none. I planted crops for damn near ever’body in this state, but they wasn’t my crops, and when I harvested ‘em, it wasn't none of my harvest. But we gonna do it now, and don’t you make no mistake about that”(76). The quote here shows that to Candy this farm is an opportunity he’s never had before. He has worked his entire life for many other …show more content…

When Lennie asks Crooks, “Why ain’t you wanted?”(68), Crooks responds saying, “ ‘Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I'm black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me”(68). The reader can determine here that Crooks is bitter at the white men for excluding him from their games and even their living area. Crooks would like to be respected and treated equally, instead of being ostracized and looked down upon from the group. Crooks continues on to say, “I was born right here in California. My old man had a chicken ranch, ‘bout ten acres. The white kids come to play at our place, an’ sometimes I went to play with them, and some of them was pretty nice. My ol’ man didn’t like that. I never knew till long later why he didn't like that. But I know now”(70). Crook’s shows here that not only did he once have the American Dream, but he also lost it. Additionally, he shows a deeper hatred for the white man that’s rooted back into his childhood. Crook’s American Dream and George and Lennie’s American Dream both involve expanding their current freedoms and boundaries. However, Crooks would like to have the freedom of not being a slave and being seen as a human being, while George and Lennie want the freedom to be their own bosses. Crook’s American Dream is the life that George and Lennie currently

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