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How Does Steinbeck Present The American Dream In Of Mice And Men

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American Dream of Mice and Men. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, readers are shown the American Dream through different viewpoints. These different viewpoints are given by characters who give different insight into the American Dream. These characters mentioned previously are George, Lennie, Crooks, and Curley’s wife, and they all understand and/or pursue the American Dream in different ways. Along with their understanding, they give different perspectives of the attainability of it. The setting of the novel is in California during the Great Depression, so people want to become rich and have stable wealth again. In Of Mice and Men, different characters give their own judgment about the American Dream of whether or not it is attainable. The first viewpoint …show more content…

George wants to own land and animals so he can have his own farm. On the other hand, Lennie wants to tend rabbits of all colors and maybe other animals. This is shown by Steinbeck in the book by this quote, “Sure, we'd have a little house in a room for you. Little fat iron stove, an' in the winter we'd keep a fire going' in it. It ain't enough land, so we'd have to work too hard. Maybe six, seven hours a day? We wouldn't have to buck barley eleven hours a day. An' when we put in a crop, why, we'd be there to take the crop up. We'd know what came of our planting”(Steinbeck 58). George and Lennie do not see any problems that they may face while trying to achieve their dream. The other viewpoint is brought up by Crooks and further explained by Curley’s wife and himself. Other than their own problems, they both feel that it isn’t possible because it is unrealistic and dreams do not come true. Crooks has never felt it was possible because he is African American and Curley’s wife never got the opportunity for her dreams at all. They feel this way because they have been on the ranch for a long time and have seen the same thing over and over. Men end up getting too confident and

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