Never let your dreams be dreams, go out and get what you want. This is one of my go to sayings when I’m making a tough decision. Judgement is one of my greatest fears and this saying reminds me to do what I really want. Both books, Of Mice and Men and The Great Gatsby are inspiring stories about men pursuing their dreams. Even though neither of the characters got the dream they intended the work ethic and drive they put into reaching their goals was truly amazing. In the book Of Mice and Men Lennie and George have a dream to have their own land and farm. Lennie loves soft things and wishes to take care of bunnies and other animals on the farm. George has had a rough past life and hopes the new farm will lead to a new beginning and a better …show more content…
life. They are both sick of having a boss telling them what to do. They wish to be there own boss. The dream is very realistic although a lot of work must be contributed. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s dream is to repeat his past love that was sparked five years ago with Daisy Buchanan. He believes that it is possible to repeat the past, exactly the way it was before. When Nick Carraway and Gatsby are having a conversation towards the beginning of the book Nick tells Gatsby he can not repeat the past. Gatsby then replies with “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can! (Fitzgerald 110)” He was so determined to get what he wanted that nothing nor nobody was going to stop him. One of the biggest similarities in both of these books is the American Dream. The American dream has shaped and influenced the people of America throughout time and some say that is a bad thing. Fitzgerald and Steinbeck agree that carrying out in the American dream is pointless. Steinbeck relates land to heaven; “Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land (74).” In the book this is Crooks; the only black character, talking to George, insisting the dream is no good. In my own opinion, actively pursuing the American dream is a good thing. I admire Gatsby in spite the fact he was selfish with the love he had for Daisy. I think we’re all a little selfish when it comes to facing our dreams and making them a reality. Jay Gatsby’s love transformed over the years. His compassion for Daisy soon turned into a love for the idea of Daisy. My reasoning for admiring Gatsby is because even though his angle of love changed his determination never once left his side. This comparison I’m making about the American dream is that although Jay Gatsby had Nick telling him the past can not be repeated and George and Lennie had a group of men doubting their dreams do to their physical and mental setbacks, all three characters kept fighting. Nick Carraway is one of the most observant characters in The Great Gatsby.
He relates most to George in the book Of Mice and Men. One evening in The Great Gatsby Nick attends one of Jay’s parties. His parties were unusual and very secretive, although not in the way where it was “invite only” but rather the rumors about Gatsby; floating around the party like the trays of inexpensive wine. Nick lays eyes on Gatsby for the first of many and describes it; “My eyes fell on Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes. (Fitzgerald 50).” “Approving eyes” shows the reader that Gatsby was proud of the party scene he had created, hoping Daisy would be too. Nick knew all along that what Gatsby was doing for Daisy was wrong even though it was all through the thought of love. As George on the other hand was observant of his friend Lennie who is extremely strong but has a mental disability, he knew in the end things would end badly. George said this right before he shoots Lennie “No, no Lennie. I ain’t mad. I never been mad, an’ I ain’t now. That’s the thing I want ya to know (Steinbeck 106).” George really did care for Lennie and wanted the dream to be accomplished but deep down knew it was better than Curley killing him. Curley would have made it slow and George could not bare with
that. George Milton and Nick Carraway were both thrown into the middle of an American dream and came out stronger people. George was taking care of Lennie and in his mind doing what was best for him. Nick was standing by Gatsby’s side through the entire story despite the choices Gatsby made. Nick was the only one who genuinely like Jay and liked spending time with him. In the end Nick is the only person to attend Jay’s funeral. I greatly admire both the modern character of The Great Gatsby (Jay) and the older characters of Of Mice and Men (George and Lennie) due to the fact that facing the American dream can seem impossible and most of the time is, it is the journey that these characters go through and how they end up that reminds me no matter what the circumstances, do what your heart is telling you and never let someone else’s disapproval get in the way.
All stories have the same blueprint structure with the same type of ending whether it be good triumphs over evil, rags to riches, the voyage and the return, tragedy, or rebirth. The thing that sets these stories apart is the message they intend to in our minds. “ The power of a story to shift and show itself to anew is part of what attracts people to it, at different ages, in different moods, with different concerns” (Auxier 7). These messages are given by the characters in the story that all have their own reasoning but in the end have one meaning behind it. Some messages give specified personal messages rather than a broad stated such as the stories The Wizard of Oz and The Great Gatsby. Blinded by the ignorance of desires, the characters
A friendship is not all they have together, Lennie and George have dreams. Lennie and George have worked up the idea of owning their own piece of land together. Lennie wants to tend the rabbits (Steinbeck 11) and George just wants to be his own boss (Steinbeck 14). The only problem with their dream is that it is unrealistic. They cannot buy land to tend and just go days without tending it because they do not want to. Like many traveling farm hands during the 1930s, George and Lennie think they could work up enough money to buy their own place and not give a “hoot” about anyone but their selves. Although their dream is unattaina...
2.George strives to own a couple acres of land with animals such as pigs and chickens. Lennie strives to tend the rabbits, as he loves soft things.
“The best laid schemes o’ mice and men, Gang aft agley often go wrong, And leave us nought but grief and pain, For promised joy!” Robert Burn’s quote makes us believe that even the best laid out plans for joy often go wrong and brings us grief and pain. George and Lennie’s plan was for a better future. The future where they didn’t take commands from someone; where they took care of themselves. As George and Lennie keep talking about the farm and more people joining in on the plan, it looks like it might happen. But with the foreshadowing through this quote: “Look, Lennie. I want you to look around here. You can remember this place, can’t you? The ranch is about a quarter mile up that way. Just follow the river. (15)” This quote foreshadows Lennie messing up and it creating a larger gap between the dream farm and them. When Lennie kills Curley's wife, the idea of the dream farm slowly starts to disappear. As George finds out about what had happen, he realizes that plan for a farm was just an idea, an illusion. “—I think I knowed 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”
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
Tennessee Williams play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby are both excellent examples that demonstrate an accurate description of success or “The American dream”. The image of success in Cat on the Hot Tin Roof is based on money and family more specifically children. While in The Great Gatsby the image of success is defended by money, and opportunity (The American dream).
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.
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) The character McMurphy as played by Jack Nicholson, McMurphy’s is a criminal who is troubled and keeps being defiant. Instead of pleading guilty, McMurphy pleads insanity and then lands inside a mental hospital. Murphy reasons that being imprisoned within the hospital will be just as bad as being locked up in prison until he starts enjoying being within by messing around with other staff and patients. In the staff, McMurphy continuously irritates Nurse Ratched. You can see how it builds up to a control problem between the inmates and staff. Nurse Ratched is seen as the “institution” and it is McMurphy’s whole goal to rebel against that institution that she makes herself out to be.The other inmates view McMurphy like he is god. He gives the inmates reason to
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.
The biggest dream throughout the story is for George and Lennie to have enough money to go and buy a farm of their own. But then Lennie does something that he can’t change back or hide from, and all hope is lost for him and George to have a farm when George does what he never thought he’d do. “And George raised the gun and steadied it, 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… Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering.” (page 106) This one final scene symbolized all of George’s aspirations, hopes, dreams, ambitions, anything he had, diminishing before his eyes. He made a point earlier in the book, “ I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says, ‘jump in.’... well I ain’t done nothin like that no more” (40). He promised himself he wouldn’t hurt Lennie again, he took it upon himself to keep Lennie safe. But George fired that last bullet and killed Lennie, stripping himself of all his hope and ambitions. The other main ambition that was crushed in this story has to do with Lennie and his rabbits. “We’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs… An’ have rabbits!...” (14) This is a recurring event throughout the book; they talk about their future dreams, and Lennie tells everyone he meets about the rabbits he's gonna have, but again that all changes when Lennie messes up badly and kills Curley’s wife. The story displays the reader the visual of, “She struggled violently under his hands… “Don’t you go yellin’,” he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.” (91) This visual can help you see where Lennie’s dream of ever handling another living being again diminishes because if he can’t keep an
Imagine. You are sitting in complete silence, even the nearby crickets won't dare to let out even the slightest of croaks. You stare down at your cluttered, dimly lit desk. Your hand grasps your pen, and the other rubs back and forth across your temple in angst. Your eyes pass over each paper, containing each incomplete thought, and your mind floods with memories of your past. Trapped by writer’s block, you are all alone with only your experiences, surroundings, and philosophy aiding you in the fall that is the dark reality of alcoholism and depression. For renowned authors F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, these influences all played a crucial role in identifying their style techniques, as well as determining similarities and differences
To paraphrase Robert Burns-"The best laid plans of mice and men go awry". This is a bleak statement and it is at the centre of the novel's action. George and Lennie have the dream of owning their own ranch and living a free independent life; they would be self-reliant and most of all they would be safe from a harsh and hostile world. Other characters in the book also try to buy into their dream ie, Candy and Crooks. Ultimately, the dream unravels and like a Greek Tragedy, the ending is terrible but also predictable.
...conclusion, the characters ambitions that I described show how their ambitions can both lead to great harm to oneself and to the people around them and great success to themselves. Furthermore, the characters of Great Gatsby that I described went beyond what a normal person could do, in both cruelty and judgment towards one another and towards themselves. A good example of this would be how Gatsby, ruined his life by chasing a girl that was already married and seeking perfection in the real world, so that it could match his dreams. Furthermore, in the book it showed that the characters that followed their ambitions that I described ended up being heart broken and devastated at the end of the book. The ambitions of a person, can lead them to act in complete dispersion, which ends up hurting the ones around them, and themselves.
Within the debate on who is to be crowned the “Great American Novel,” a valid factor that may be taken into consideration is how ideals in culture become altered with an evolving environment, and therefore, the argument can be made on the behalf of The Great Gatsby to be considered for the title. Due to its more recent ideological concepts, the novel addresses American ideals that are not fully developed or addressed at all within The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. These ideals can be boiled down to primarily two concepts: the fully-developed American dream of richness and upper-class goals, and consumerism in the industrialization of America. While Mark Twain’s piece touches on the “American dream” with Huck beginning the book off with $6,000
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams share and explore themes and techniques of imprisonment, by both mental and physical means. To explore imprisonment, both writers use characters and narration techniques to express themes of illusion and reality by characterisation, the American Dream in symbolism, and entrapment by responsibility through narration structure. While both authors express a story, Tennessee Williams uses play direction, while F. Scott Fitzgerald uses novel structure to convey the ideas of imprisonment.