The American Dream is one of the central ideals of our country, and it has been one of the most “American” aspects of our society since its founding until today. The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, and Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, particularly focus how impossible it is to achieve and what the effects of not achieving The American Dream are. As one of the oldest philosophies of our country, the general idea of The American Dream has stayed mostly the same, but some of the finer points of has gone through change in the 400 years since the pilgrims landed. Overall, the message of the American Dream has been making something out of nothing, and making a better life for you and your descendents. The modern American Dream was based on the idea of buying a house being the achievement of The American Dream. This movement largely came from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, which was an economic jump start in the Great Depression. Part of the New Deal included a 1934 housing bill called The National Housing Act, which encouraged the building and ownership of homes. Even though Of Mice and Men takes place around this time (during the Great Depression) while The Outsiders takes place much later in the same century, both books center around this dream.
The American Dream and its impossibility is the central message of Of Mice and Men. In Of Mice and Men, which Steinbeck wrote around the time of the Great Depresson, The American Dream embodies itself in
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George and Lennie’s (the main characters of the book) Dream of having their own farm with alfalfa and rabbits. This dream builds momentum as the old decrepit Candy pledges his support and most of the money they need; it also picks up naysayers, such as Crooks the stable buck, who tells Lennie in his cabin that nobody ever gets that dream. “‘I seen hunreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads ...
An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it. .... Nobody ever gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talking about it, but it’s just in their head.
Crooks, pg. 74
This quotation by Crooks perfectly reflects how common and American this dream is, but how long-time ranchers like Crooks (and even George) know that it is impossible to
achieve.
Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan states that, "in the state of nature mans life is nasty, brutish and short". In depression era America, no greater truth could be said. There were millions unemployed, largely unskilled and living on the margins of society. The lowest of the low were the migrant labourers travelling from place to place trying to scratch a living. They often had to travel illegally by freight car with all its consequent dangers. Their life expectancy was low, crime was rampant and despair was a fellow traveller. This is the setting of John Steinbeck's, 'Of Mice and Men'.
The American Dream is a dream that everyone imagines to be picture perfect. The American Dream means having freedom, equality and opportunity’s to achieve the dream that you conceptualize to be right by you. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck did not want to just illustrate the American dream as being easy, but he wanted to point out the American Dream as being difficult too. Steinbeck made a work of art by composing a great novel to make the reader understand that life can be difficult and at times dreams are hard to achieve. Of Mice and Men was written and based on the settings of the Great Depression (Anderson). The Great Depression was a very dire time that left multiple of people despondent and the unavailing to move on with their lives. The Great Depression created a world where everyone had to seek and survive for themselves. In the novel Steinbeck wanted to explore and point out how powerless people where during the time of the Great Depression. Steinbeck purposely incorporated his characters to depict the life struggle of what people go through during grim times. In the novel, Steinbeck illustrated a great set of characters Lennie, George, Candy and Crooks. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck discusses handicaps, hardships, and friendships of the characters.
In Of Mice and Men, one of the main themes is the idea of the American dream. This is one of the more important themes in the book because it plays such a big role in how each character pursues life, and their dreams show a different side of who they are and what they want from life. Many of the characters talk about what their version of the American dream is. Curley’s wife talks about how she wanted to be a movie star. Candy and George both want to own their own land.
The American Dream is what everyone so desperately desired for in the 1930’s. Many come to America for the American Dream, to be successful, have freedom, and support their families by the better opportunities given. In Of Mice and Men the movie the setting sets in the 1930’s where Lennie and George become farm workers for Curley’s dad. Working in these conditions in the 1930’s must of been difficult as shown in the movie when Lennie and George face problems in their journey together. What’s your American Dream?
The American Dream has been the ideal way of life to every citizen. Equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work and persistence allows people to strive for The American Dream. For others, The Dream might have a different meaning to what the think is achievable. In the essay, “Is the American Dream even possible” John Steinbeck makes accusations about the American Dream and the credibility of it. The American Dream in Steinbeck's perspective is that in reality, The Dream is there to believe but not there to its full potential.
The American Dream is a thought that everyone has at some point. Some are bigger than others and some are harder than others, but everyone hopes to accomplish their American Dream. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck shows that the American Dream is a myth, not a reality. John Steinbeck shows the American Dream being a myth through a few of the characters in Of Mice and Men. For example, Lennie, Curley’s Wife, and Candy all have American Dreams, but they also have some obstacles that stop them from completing their American Dream.
America is seen as the land of opportunity in that there are endless possibilities for an individual. In this land of opportunity, Americans strive to obtain the ideal known as the American dream. The American Dream is seen as the accomplishment of an ambition achieved while challenged by adversity.1 Americans often associate this success with the ownership of a home. The home is not simply a place of basic protection; there is a much deeper connection to the individual. Ownership of a home grants freedom and security that establishes a sense permanency for the individual. In contrast, renting a living space possesses a semblance of instability and dependence.2 The desire to improve ones’ position in life inspires one to obtain the American dream.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (Independence Hall Association, 2011).” This exert from The Declaration of Independence provides a look on America and how life is meant to be lived; with all individuals having an equal right to exist. This existence includes life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This beacons to one vital idea, one main vision, which creates a fundamental dream. This dream is the American Dream, and is the ideology that life should be richer, fuller, and more sustainable for the common man. The idea influences viewpoints that anything can be accomplished with the correct willpower, no matter the hill to climb. This fore mentioned dream causes much hope and opportunity, but additionally makes the weakest link plummet. The true American Dream can be chased, but exists if and only if the one trying for it can accept failure and move on. This continually presents itself in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
The American Dream is often thought of as the key to happiness, usually defined as the thing that one wants to achieve in their lifetime. However, it does not always end the way one may wish. When one attempts to achieve it, he risks the possibility of failure. In many fictional novels, this theme is displayed. In novels and in real life, there are continuous interruptions with one’s dreams. Although the American Dream, however one may define it, promises hope for people and characters from all backgrounds, it is impossible to achieve.
First, what is the American dream? According to David Wallechinsky, “the traditional American Dream is based on the belief that hardworking citizens can improve their lives, pay their monthly bills without worry, give their children a start to an even better life, and still save enough to live comfortably after they retire” (1). “The American Dream” states, “It has always represented the possibility for individuals to succeed and live a life of wealth and comfort, made possible by both the political and economic attitudes in the USA and the individual’s own hard work” (1). Daniella Nicole adds that “in years past, chasing the American Dream meant the sky was the limit. . .” (1).
Since Columbus made land, people have been searching for the “American Dream”. Many people have their own idea and ideas that have changed over a period of time, but what exactly is the “American Dream” defined as .Origins of the dream have been rooted in the pioneering mentality of the eighteenth and nineteenth century immigrants, most who came to America because of a promise for a new and better life. The American Dream was sought through hard work and determination. After the time of the World Wars, society changed and so did the view of the “American Dream”, it changed from a potential reality into being a dream. People were striving to reach their definition of the American Dream. Beliefs and values took a turn. The American Dream was put up on a pedestal, corrupted by false values and society was pressured by their desires and greed. “The avarice of mankind is insatiable”, was stated twenty-three centuries prior by Aristotle, so this was nothing new. Success and fortune have been a downfall in the search for the American Dream. It has corrupted society’s ethics in all, family values and morals, and psychological well-being. In part to the fact that “The American Dream” and the way Americans wish to live can be unreachable by the average person. Society once was based on truth, passion, and liberty for all but now is a mere illusion, focusing on money, power and how to reach it; portraying materialism and wealth as the “American Dream” and self-actualization, as portrayed by Miller in Death of a Salesman.
The “American dream”, ever since our founding fathers stepped foot on America, there has been the American dream. The standards for the American dream, have changed through the decades. Just in a span of 10 years, the concept of the American dream has changed drastically. John Steinbeck 's classic novel “Of Mice and Men” and F.Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby”, are just two examples on how people dream of a better life, and try to achieve it. Unfortunately the American dream is not easy to achieve, in both stories; “Of Mice And Men” and “The Great Gatsby”, the main characters, end up being lonely and they don 't get their version of the American dream. In John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice And Men” and F.Scott Fitzgerald
Americans strive to obtain the American dream, but they fail to realize that it is our own dissatisfaction and anger that get in our way of keeping the American dream alive. John Steinbeck’s, “Paradox and Dream”, describes these paradoxes that linger in almost all Americans lives. Steinbeck shows how Americans believe in these things, but they contradict them by the actions they take or the words we say. He describes how Americans are dissatisfied, angry and intemperate. John Steinbeck portrayed a negative attitude towards Americans and their ideals by displaying how most are dissatisfied and angry, intemperate and opinionated, and believe in these certain things about ourselves that are not always true.
The main ideas of the American dream as well as the way we are exposed to them is ever-changing. Nowadays, to a large portion of individuals, the American dream is to own a big house and a nice car. . Though the term the “American Dream” was not introduced until 1931 by James Truslow Adams it was birthed with the signing of the Declaration of Independence (Where Is the American Dream?). Founding fathers did not conjure this dream in means of monetary success but the ability and freedom to be as equally successful as how hard you work and not of what or who you are. The byproduct of such freedom could then be to own a big house and a nice car. One of the most infamous phrases in the Declaration of Independence,
When the term ‘American Dream’ was first mentioned in 1931 by James Truslow Adams, he described it as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” (Clark). When Adams mentioned the term, it had much more of an idealistic meaning, rather than the materialistic meaning it has in modern society. At the time of it’s mention, the dream meant that prosperity was available to everyone. In the beginning, the American Dream simply promised a country in which people had the chance to work their way up through their own labor and hard work (Kiger). Throughout history, the basis of the dream has always been the same for each individual person. It