Comparing The American Dream In Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In a recent poll conducted by PBS, results showed that nearly half of Americans who once believed in the American dream thought that it didn’t exist anymore. This portrayal that the American dream no longer exists or is not easily attained is shown in the novel “Of Mice and Men,” written by John Steinbeck. The book focuses on a dependent relationship between two characters. George is a very smart man, but struggles with companionship. Whereas Lennie is a very dumb man, that thrives with making friends. These two characters travel to work on a ranch in the hopes that they will make enough money to buy their own ranch. They describe this ranch that they will own and what will be on the ranch as their dream. As the story progresses the author

He does this by exaggerated elements of Lennie and george's dream. These overagageratio are shown in this excerpt from the novel, “‘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---’ ‘An’ live off the fatta the lan’,’ Lennie shouted. ‘An’ have rabbits. Go on, george! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that, George.’” (Steinbeck 15). In addition to over exaggerating contributing to the unrealistic nature of the dream, the time period that Steinbeck sets the novel in also makes their dreams seem unrealistic. Steinbeck does this by setting the novel during the Great Depression, which was a time where many people were poor because of a massive stock crash where many peoples money was lost. Therefore by stating in their dream that they would own a couple of acres is very unrealistic because they are very poor and it is not likely that they will be able to make enough money to afford their