John Steinback wrote the book “Of Mice and Men” which shows the character’s dreams versus reality.George and Lennie have a dream about having their own farm and raising it themselves, but they don’t have enough money to pay for it. So they go to work on another farm to earn money, but they meet lots of friends and enemies which cause most of the conflicts in the story. Since George is so protective of Lennie, he protects him and supports him wherever he got himself into, even if it’s the most troubling situation. And it’s not just George and Lennie who have dreams, every character in the book has a dream. So since George and Lennie want their dream farm, they have to do their job which means to stay out of trouble and work hard. But with George and Lennie, conflicts interfere with this, that’s just reality though. George and Lennie have a dream of building their own farm, but conflicts start to interfere with that. “Well, it’s ten acres”, says George. “Got a little win’mill. Got a little shack on it, an’ a chicken run. Got a kitchen, orchard, cherries, apples, peaches, ‘cots, nuts, got a few berries. They’s a place for alfalfa and plenty water to flood it. They’s a pig pen------” “An rabbits, George” (Page 57). George and Lennie want this farm to be their perfect world, which relates to their dream. “And George …show more content…
raised the gun and steadied 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. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering.” (Page 106). Since George shot Lennie, now their dream becomes different. They thought they were going to raise the farm together, but the reality of this is that Lennie is now dead and he won’t be able to help out on the farm anymore. Curley’s wife had a dream to become an actress in Hollywood for her future career. “He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon’s he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it.’ She looked closely at Lennie to see whether she was impressing him. (Page 88). Curley’s wife met a man who said she would be in a show once he got back in Hollywood, so she knows her dream will finally come true. “‘I never got that letter’, she said. ‘I always thought my ol’ lady stole it. Well, I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make something of myself, an’ where they stole your letters. I ast her if she stole it, too, an’ she says no. So I married Curley.” (Page 88). The reality for Curley’s wife is that she never got to accomplish her dream, she instead got married to Curley and now lives on the farm. Crook’s is a slave who works on the farm, but gets treated real poorly. "S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black. How'd you like that? S'pose you had to sit out here an' read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody-to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.” (Page 80). Crooks feels lonely and dreams that he won’t be lonely anymore and he’ll be free from being a slave. “Maybe you guys better go. I ain't sure I want you in here no more. A colored man got to have some rights even if he don't like 'em.” (Page 90). Reality is, at least in the past, that Crooks will always be a slave and won’t get too many new “...rights…”. The book “Of Mice and Men” as you can see shows lots of dreams that people have, but nothing will occur perfectly like what you’ve dreamed about.
Lennie dreamed about tending the rabbits on the farm with George, but Lennie doesn’t have a chance to do that anymore. Curly’s wife wanted to be an actress in Hollywood for a show, but she never got the call that she’s in. Crooks never got to be a free slave. But this story at least talked about the characters trying to reach those dreams, which shows they have dignity and pride within themselves. But in reality, dreams are something we stride for, dreams will never be perfectly perfect nor perfectly
destroyed.
Dreams give people motivation and a sense of hope to not give up when life's hard conditions get in the way of success. In the novella, Of Mice and Men, George Milton has his own “American Dream” where he will live in a house, that he bought with his hard earned money, with Lennie. They will grow their own crops and own farm animals to feed themselves. This dream keeps George motivated to find new jobs when Lennie gets them into trouble. George does not want to give up on working hard and making money on ranches.
In this book George is constantly taking care of Lennie and is always reassuring him that they will have their own land and be able to tend the rabbits. George doesn’t actually believe in this dream which shows how he is willing to say anything to make Lennie happy. Also, George is constantly bringing up how easy his life would be without Lennie, he said "God almighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could get a job a work, an no trouble (12). This quote shows how George is aware that Lennie is holding him back from making more money but how he choices to stay with him because they have a genuine friendship. George takes his parental figure role seriously and would never leave 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.
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.
Although there are many important passages in Of Mice and Men, this passage is particularly important to the novella as a whole for a number of reasons. Steinbeck uses this passage to describe, and build up hope for, the dream that George and Lennie have, displaying the hope and naivete hidden beneath George's rough-and-tumble countenance. One major point of information we can glean from this passage is a connection between the title and the events of the novella. This passage displays George acting as a protective guardian or parent figure, a recurring theme throughout the story. The simple, almost childlike, optimistic excitement about the “future” reveals a side of George he doesn't normally allow himself to show. The farm that George describes acts as a sort of catalyst for the rest of the action in the book.
The novel of mice and men by John Steinbeck is a heartwarming story about two men George and Lennie. George is a small stocky man who prides himself on his ability to be independent, and often taunts Lennie by saying "God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want.” (pg12). Lennie on the other hand is a very large childlike man who is very dependent of George. These two have stuck together for a long time and over that time have developed a dream of owning their own ranch. Steinbeck uses a variety of techniques to display the theme “even the best laid themes can go wrong”
George and Lennie depended on their dream as motivation to live on and work. They've been working all their life to accomplish their dream. While taking a break by a pond on the way to another ranch, Lennie asked George to tell him why they are working and saving money. "Guys like us got nothing; they work up a stack and blow it in the town. But we're different, we got a future " (14). Most workers back then just live on day by day, without a goal. But George and Lennie are different, they got a dream to work and live for. Lennie kept on wanting to be told about their dream a few times in the story, indicating that it's really important to them. George depends on the dream to save up money and take care of Lennie instead of using all the money like all the other workers. While staying in the cabin, Lennie asked George about their dream. "George, how long's it gonna be till we get that little place an' live on the fatta the land and rabbits" (56). George and Lennie's dream has been repeated several times in the story. Each time they describe it, it gives them more will to work and try to accomplish the dream. The dream keeps George and Lennie together so they can work toward their dream. Without the dream, George and Lennie would be different from what they are now. George would be like the other workers, spending all the money right after getting them. And Lennie might be in jail for accused of rape or get bullied by other workers.
George envisions a dream causing Lennie to be manipulated by it. This leads into George believing in the American dream as well. Their dream is to own a farm on a piece of property, own animals, be safe, live in comfort, and find independence. While at the ranch, Lennie explains to George, "An' have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages...How I get to tend the rabbits" (14). This quote reveals that Lennie does not see the true American dream, his dream is to simply pet rabbits. While George starts to believe in this dream of theirs, he is not sure how both of them will acquire this American dream. This is why the American dream is put to the test. At...
At the beginning of the story Lennie describes the dream as future, and they carry this dream towards the end of the story at the place where they slept the day before they go to the ranch. They describe how it looks like and what each of their job is going to be. George explains that the dream provides them both freedom in work, settlement, and a property of their own. The description of the promises in this dream through “An’ live off the fatta the lan’,”(pg.14) shows how they could potentially become the bourgeoisie and achieve the other products of this dream. What is important here is that the dream fails because George and Lennie are weak characters. In other words, the upper class constantly overpowers the working class and makes them weak, disabling them from achieving their dreams. Just as in other cases the dream which seemed like a reality failed to become reality. This is natural order as the bourgeoisie and proletariat are in specific relationship with each other where one dominates the other and is weakened by it. To put it another way, the poor rely on the rich to give them jobs,
George’s relationship with Lennie has made him selfless; his conversations, with and with out Lennie, are generally revolving around Lennie, although in the case of their dream-ranch George seems to find fulfilment for himself as well. Due to these altruistic tendencies that he shows throughout the novel, a danger is bestowed upon George; he tends to care for Lennie far too much, and too little for himself. In occasional moments, he escapes his sympathy and compassion for Lennie, and realises the burden that he causes. This usually results in George taking his frustration out on Lennie, which can often harm his simple mind, leaving Lennie upset and forced to confess to his own uselessness, and George feeling guilty for what he has caused. We can learn very little about George through his actual conversations, which made it necessary for Steinbeck to focus the novel on him in particular, and let the reader gain an closer insight on him through his actions. Generally, he seems to be caring, intelligent and sensible, but is greatly worn by the constant attention Lennie requires. This illustrates a major theme in Of Mice and Men, the dangers that arise when one becomes involved in a dedicated relationship.
As George and Lennie have been travelling around together since the death of Lennie’s Aunt Clara the two have build a dream in which they discuss how they in-vision their lives once their done working. “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 cow and some pigs and-” (Steinbeck 16). Both George and Lennie share a dream in which they will one day have saved up enough money to buy their own farm and live the rest of their days together so that when they work they will be working for themselves and to be able do whatever they want on their own terms. Even though George and Lennie have been working toward their dream for a long time it is still a challenge for them to achieve it with Lennie’s disabilities and him getting them run out of Weed. “God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and g...
George and Lennie make an awesome couple of companions, however George is all the more an overseer. It was a greater amount of George's fantasy to claim their own farm and settle. It was George's American dream to possess their life and take to take what they believed was legitimately theirs and that is the sort of attitude that a few individuals had amid the 1930s. A great many people did not comprehend why George dealt with Lennie in light of the fact that he resembled a miserable cause however George constantly wanted to deal with him. Most characters of the novel feel that Lennie is unequal to them, however this was not genuine. Lennie had the same trusts and dreams as most characters in the
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck shows American dream as an unreachable goal for the characters. Of Mice and Men is a novel based on two childhood friends, Lennie and George, who travel together in search of work. Lennie, the gentle giant, has a mental disability and an obsession of petting soft objects. One day, while stroking a girl’s hair, Lennie accidently kills her. And eventually by the end of the novel, George is forced to shoot Lennie. Steinbeck shows American Dream as an unreachable goal because of a character’s standing in the society, their dreams to be unreal and their dependency on other characters.
The two would often talk about the fact that they’d “have [their] own place” (Steinbeck 57). Thus, shows their extreme desire for their dream ranch. The idea of obtaining it is always on their minds and causes them to work harder to obtain it. They imagine that they would be able to say “ the hell with goin’ to work, and… build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof” (14-15). When the weather is really bad, they would not have to deal with the harsh conditions and can relax. Thus, they are able to work when they want to and for the amount of time they wanted. However, there is no guarantee that the ranch will be as successful as they imagine. It could be tiny, and they would have to work every day no matter what due to financial concerns or other problems. According to one critic “their dream of contentment in the modern world is impractical and does not accurately reflect the human condition” (“Themes and Construction: Of Mice and Men”). Furthermore, when Lennie kills Curley’s wife, any chance of the dream coming true immediately disappears similar to most American dreams. George’s original plan or working to get enough money to pay for the ranch is shattered. Lennie would have to escape to avoid being captured and possibly tortured by Curley. Thus being unable to stay and get the