In the 1930s, The Great Depression was a leading cause of Americans losing their jobs and homes. Citizens were forced to start over, leaving very little opportunity for citizens to achieve their American Dream. In Of Mice of Men, John Steinbeck believes the cycle of poverty denies citizens from obtaining their “American Dream”, his ideals about the cycle still apply today. The “American Dream” is the belief that anyone can create a better quality of life for themselves.
Steinbeck uses situational irony to enforce the idea of generational poverty causing the “American Dream” to not become a reality for the majority of Citizens. In Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, George tells Lennie stories about how others like them, will never own land, but they are different and have a future. George told Lenni, “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to” “With us it ain’t like that” (Steinbeck 13). Steinbeck uses repetition and generalization to emphasize his ideals about obtaining the “American Dream.” He generalizes a
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According to CBS News in 2021, “[t]he globe's 2,750 billionaires now control 3% of all wealth, up from 1% in 1995 — that makes them wealthier than half the planet, according to a new report from a group founded by economist Thomas Piketty” (CBS News). The phrase “American Dream” has completely changed its meaning since the time of Steinbeck’s novel. The American dream is no longer something that is achievable by the majority of citizens. Due to the rapidly increasing wage gap, we’ve grown farther from the original meaning and