Lennie's Dream

English Literary Essay – ‘Of Mice And Men’ Jasmin Fraser 10B
Topic: George and Lennie’s fragile dream to buy a small ranch of their own is a powerful symbol in the novel for what is commonly known as the “American Dream”.

The desire for freedom, equality and a better life for all is just a small portion of the American Dream which most people had at this time of the 1930’s America, just after the Great Depression. Men wished for their own land which they could use to make a living for themselves without the hardships of being a farmworker at that time. Many people came from far and wide to escape religious prejudice and any other kind of adversity they were dealing with, hoping to find a bright future in America. The American Dream

By doing this he portrays that there has not been any improvement with George and Lennie’s dream and also that of the other characters. The novel begins with the death of a mouse, “Jus’ a dead mouse, George. I didn’t kill it. Honest! I found it dead.” Lennie did kill the mouse but he did not mean to. He doesn’t know his own strength and physical capabilities. At the end of the novel there is another death. Not only does Lennie die, but so did Curley’s wife. Lennie killed Curley’s wife, “And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck,” it was unintended, just like the mouse. The death in the beginning and at the end of the novel shows the cycle and how no progress was made. The novel also starts off by the Salinas River near the Gabilan Mountains, “A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green.” The story ends in the exact same place, “The deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon.” The significance of the novel beginning and ending in the same setting is to convey that there was no movement for George and Lennie. They did physically move but they did not progress in the wat that they were hoping – just as if they stayed in the same place. The cycle of the novel shows the realisation that George and Lennie’s dream is unattainable because characters only end off where they started because whatever path they were on was not going to work and they obviously have to start afresh. George and Lennie’s path was to work hard and eventually buy their own ranch and live the American Dream. That path did not work out for them and never will which is why George, without Lennie, will have to start again, just like the novel and many of the chapters are cyclical so are the lives of George and Lennie. They move from ranch to ranch hoping to come closer to their dream but just landing up in the same old place they