How Does Steinbeck Present Hope In Of Mice And Men

Unfulfilled Dreams

Hope is one of the key motivations towards a better future. It continually pushes people towards their goals, no matter how unattainable those goals may seem. This is exemplified within the book Of Mice and Men when the readers see how men like Candy, Lennie, Crooks and George get through the hard times with hope of what they’ll become later on in life. As well as the significance of the damaging effect of Curley’s Wife being robbed of her dreams. This novel demonstrates through it’s characters, that the hope the dream brings can be more important than the dream itself.

The novel Of Mice and Men shows the continuous hope within a dream that both Lennie and George Attain throughout the book, and how it affects decisions made

Lennie and George find themselves becoming more hopeful after Candy successfully manages to turn a dream that was originally meant for two men into a dream for three. He tries to help George and Lennie attain their dream, and convince them that, “S’pose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in. I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some” (59). He also shows the two friends of the possibility towards failed outcomes- symbolized through Candy’s inability to kill his own dog. The readers are also shown in Of Mice and Men through Crooks, a crippled African American, the significance of how hope can easily be spread from one person to another. After Lennie and Candy describe their “American dream” to the lonely man, he finds himself offering, “...If you … guys would want a hand to work for nothing—just his keep, why I'd come an' lend a hand" (76). This represents the optimism that spread through the one dream that was originally meant to be obtained by only two men -George and Lennie-. Which effectively illustrates the idea of how easily the hope and motivation of someone can greatly impact the people surrounding