George and Lennie's Dream

Of mice and men - How far was it from becoming reality? The George and

Lennie dream.

How far was it from becoming reality?

"We could live offa the fatta the lan'." This was George and Lennie

dream and also the dream of thousands of people at that time. The book

by John Steinbeck 'Of Mice and Men' is set in the 1930's during the

time of the Great Depression. In this book Steinbeck portrays the

characters as pathetic victims of society, each of them pathetic in

different ways. Yet all of them are lonely, in need of companionship,

in need of a relationship and in desperate need to make their dreams

come true.

In life everybody has to have a dream whether they are rich or poor.

In this book Steinbeck shows that the dream of all the ranchmen amount

to the same thing, a piece of land. As Crooks says,

" I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches an'

that same damn thing in their heads. Hundreds of them. They come an'

every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head."

This was the 'American Dream', a little house or land that belonged to

them. On that land or in that house they can have what the want and no

one can tell them how to act and behave.

The dream is basically about three things, doing what you want, when

you want. No one can tell you what to do. If there were other people

staying with them they would have each other for companionship and

friendship, which George and Lennie already have but many of the

ranchmen want.

Steinbeck also shows that the dream was only ever a dream and it never

became reality for George, Lennie or any of the ranchmen. At the time

this book was written, the dream was very common and yet it became a

reality for only a very few people.

In this essay I am going to write about the dreams of the characters

and how some of them became involved in George and Lennie's dream. And

how the dream was so close to becoming reality, but shattered as a

result of Lennie's instability and violence. I am also going to write

about the dreams of the other people on the ranch.

The book starts of as George and Lennie arrive at the Salinas river, a

few miles away from Soledad. They are headed to a ranch in Soledad to

find work. George and Lennie ended up in Soledad, because they ran

away from Weed to save Lennie from going to jail.