How Does Steinbeck Use Dreams In Of Mice And Men

“No... you tell it. It ain’t the same if I tell it. Go on… George. How I tend the. rabbits.” -Lennie (John Steinbeck,14) Lennie dreams about eventually being able to tend rabbits. Lennie, having a relatively rough life, uses this dream as motivation to keep going through this.

Hopes and dreams are one of the many recurring themes in John Steinbeck’s novel, ¨Of Mice and Men.¨ The novel takes place in America, during The Great Depression. This is likely what forces the two main characters, George and Lennie, to become migrant farmers .In the novel, it is apparent that the underlying theme is that Dreams can help people through tough times. For example, the two main characters, George and Lennie, have pushed through their dreary lives for

´...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---”’(Steinbeck,14) George is describing their relationship and their dreams to Lennie, as if this was a new concept.

Notice how he says “together”. It is clear from this that a large part of the dream is that they do it together. Because of this dream, they wanted to be together, as shown by the quote: “No---look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ‘Cause I want you but to stay with me.”(John Steinbeck,13). George, after exploding with anger and ranting about how much George’s life would be without Lennie, he takes it all back and states that he didn’t really mean it. So because of the dream, George wants Lennie to stick with him, despite how much trouble he has caused in the

We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit-in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us.”(Steinbeck,14) George describes how George and Lennie aren’t like other ranch hands. George and Lennie stick together through anything. Because of their plan to eventually be able to live on a farm of their own, they’ve become unlike other ranch hands, and because of that dream, they stick together unlike the other ranch hands which as they say are very lonely. So because of their dream, they have someone who “gives a damn” about