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What do you think Steinbeck is giving readers about dreams
What do you notice about steinbeck's portrays dreams
John steinbeck on lennie
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Dreams are something that everyone has. They drive people to do great things and make their dreams come true, however, there are some dreams that never come true. The book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, follows the story of Lennie and George, two migrant workers, who come to a ranch looking for work. On this ranch, George and Lennie meet many other people, and throughout the story many people's dreams are revealed. Through the characters Lennie, Candy, and Curley’s, wife Steinbeck shows that dreams impact how a character acts and can also give that person a purpose whether it is negative of positive. To begin with, Lennie’s dream is to buy a place with George and Candy where he is able to look after and care for the rabbits. This causes …show more content…
One example of this is after Lennie gets in a fight with Curly. He becomes worried that George will not let him care for the rabbits, “I can still tend the rabbits, George?”(Steinbeck 65). This shows that Lennie has become worried that he will lose his privilege of tending the rabbits due to hurting Curly in the fight, so he checks with George to make sure that he is in the clear. Lennie is being controlled by his aspirations since, instead of worrying about the aftermath of hurting Curly, he jumps right to the conclusion of how this will impact his goal. This reveals that Lennie’s real focus is simply to be able to maintain his goal since he doesn’t seem to care what happens around himself as long as it results in him caring for rabbits. Another example of Lennie being focused on his end goal is when he accidentally kills his puppy: “Why do you gotta killed? You ain’t so …show more content…
This is first shown in how Candy reacts to George telling him about his and Lennie’s plan when Candy responds with, “S’pose I went in with you guys. That's three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in”(Steinbeck 59). This shows how immediately after hearing that George and Lennie are saving up to buy their own place, Candy offers to put a great deal of money in if he can join them. This reveals that Candy has been focusing on any opportunity like this to get a place that he can call his own since Candy acts without hesitation by offering to help them. These actions build up to the fact that Candy’s focus is to feel secure in a place with people that he can trust as shown when he says, “Something’ he could live on and there couldn’t nobody throw him off of it”(Steinbeck 76). This reveals that Candy’s dream is to not be able to be kicked out of somewhere for once since he is afraid the he will lose his job and have nowhere to go, and explains why Candy has become so focused on helping George and Lennie achieve their dream in exchange for a place that he can call home. Candy is someone who is used to knowing people who go from job to job without having a real goal, so of course, when he meets George and Lennie who plan to get their own place, he would
Steinbeck believed that friendship was important. Lennie knows that George will always have his back, although Lennie cannot really protect George he feels like he can (Steinbeck 14). Even though George says, he does not want Lennie with him, he does not want to leave him by himself (Steinbeck 13). When Lennie and George first get to the ranch, the boss starts to ask them questions. George answers all of them even if they were asking Lennie. He knows that if Lennie talks, he might say what happened in Weed (Steinbeck 22). The boss, at the new farm, thinks that George only wants to take Lennie money. But George tells him that he only wants to take care of Lennie. The boss tells George that he had never seen two men traveling together like him and Lennie (22).
George's dream is to have a ranch of his own and Lennie's dream is to have, as mentioned earlier, a farm filled with rabbits. Lennie's hope for his dream is influenced whenever George starts describing his dream farm in explicit detail, such as how the fields are going to look, what animals they will own, what the daily routine will be etc. This farm symbolizes happiness and salvation, especially for Lennie, since he understands that the farm is his ticket to getting rabbits. In fact, the reason why he forgets George's orders is because he cannot stop thinking about his rabbits. A farm has basically become Lennie's version of heaven. This relates to how people always long for something to the point of where it becomes like heaven, a place where happiness lasts forever. Unfortunately, the rabbits symbolize false hope. For instance, Lennie holds a dead mouse and a dead puppy all for the same reason: he killed them. His love for petting soft creatures only causes trouble for himself. So if he owns a lot of rabbits, it is more than likely that they will all die because of Lennie. The rabbits, to Lennie, are things that seem like they will bring him true happiness, when they only create more sorrow. In other words, the rabbits symbolize sorrow disguised as salvation because in the end, Lennie goes suffers all because of his love for soft things. This is able to teach readers how dreams in the past
Everyone dreams about something. However, it is important to know when the right time to dream is, and when to wake up. A major theme that Steinbeck conveys in the book Of Mice and Men is the pursuit of the American Dream. The book tells the story of two men trying to earn a better life. Their American Dream was to get their own place somewhere and live together. Although, through the characterization of Lennie, the symbolism of rabbits, and the setting of the book, Steinbeck is trying to convey that people cannot continue to live in a dream.
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.
George and Lennie need each other to achieve their dream of their own farm with rabbits to tend. Lennie could not take care of his rabbits or even survive without George.
When Lennie and George encounter Slim, another ranch hand, they automatically respect him and react positively towards him. “This was Slim, the jerkline skinner. His hatchet face was ageless. He might have been thirty-five or fifty. His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought. His hands, large and lean, were as delicate in their action as those of a temple dancer.” (Steinbeck, 33-34) Slim is the noblest of the ranch as the only character who seems to be at peace with his circumstances and his life. The other characters view slim as wise and respectable man and often go to him for guidance, as the only person who has achieved what he wants in life.
In Of Mice and Men, it seems an incontrovertible law of nature that dreams should go unfulfilled. From George and Lennie’s ranch to Curley’s wife’s stardom, the characters’ most cherished aspirations repeatedly fail to materialize. However, the fact that they do dream—often long after the possibility of realizing those dreams has vanished—suggests that dreaming serves a purpose in their lives. What the characters ultimately fail to see is that, in Steinbeck’s harsh world, dreams are not only a source of happiness but a source of misery as well.
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 3 themes in “Of Mice And Men” are loneliness, powerlessness, and dreams often fail.
What is the role of dreams in John Steinbeck’s novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ In John Steinbeck’s novella, ‘Of Mice and Men,’ the role of dreams plays a very important part. The book was written during the ‘Great Depression,’ which occurred just after the well known ‘Wall Street Crash.’ The book Of Mice and Men was set in the depression of the 1930’s in California in a place called Soledad. Men travelled around looking for any work they could find, they had to leave families and their homes just to make money. Even firms and companies went bankrupt; these were depressing and desperate times, with no hope and definitely no future.
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.
a better way of life - but something always seems to get in the way of
In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck illustrates the dreams of George,Lennie, and other characters and how these dreams are unrealistic and unattainable .Their dreams were the reason that these characters kept moving forward but because of difficult circumstances the dreams of George,Lennie,Candy and Curley's wife are shattered , they knew that their dream was never really attainable but they still had hope but because they were so greatly impacted by Lennies actions their dreams are never accomplished.
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?”
Many themes occur throughout the novel, but one can apply to everyone: we all have tasks we must perform in order to achieve a better life. Initially, this theme becomes apparent through Candy and his dog, "' That dog ain't no good to himself. I wisht somebody'd shoot me if I got old an' a cripple'" (Steinbeck 45). The theme is you gotta do what you gotta do. Candy recognizes that it is his responsibility to put down his dog. It is the same with George when he has to kill Lennie: he knows that he will miss him, but he also knows that it must be done. Similarly, one critic agrees that actions such as, the dog being shot out of Candy's compulsion, predict the future demise of Lennie (Lisca). Lennie does not understand why certain things cannot be done and it only causes trouble for him. George comprehends his duty towards society, and the sacrifice that must be made in order to achieve his own utopia. Our own duties can become clear when we relate to this conceptual theme.