Of Mice And Men American Dream Essay

In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, throughout the book, there is a recurring theme of characters having their “American Dreams” crushed. The book is set on a ranch in the 1930s, which is the time period of the Great Depression. During these hard times, many people had their dreams crushed and lost almost all progress. In Of Mice and Men, we see that the main characters - Lennie and George - both have an “American Dream”. As the story progresses, we meet more characters that also have dreams. A main theme we see with these dreams is that the numerous characters that have dreams end up being prevented by someone or something.

Curley’s Wife is one of the characters that had a ruined dream. She had the dream to become a movie star, especially

He had 2, both being prevented because of Lennie. His first dream was being able to be alone and go off by himself, but Lennie came along and George knew he had to stay with him; stopping him from being able to live a normal and nice life. His second dream was the farm. It was a shared dream between the two and both were passionate about it. After Lennie killed Curley’s Wife, George knew. He and Candy found her body and had to decide what to do, “Guess…we gotta tell the…guys. I guess we gotta get ‘im an’ lock ‘im up” (Steinbeck 94). George knew that Lennie had to be stopped, he was too harmful for the public. George says, “I should of knew, I guess maybe way back in my head I did” (Steinbeck 94). He was hopeless and that’s when he knew the dream of living on the farm was over. Lennie, Candy, and George all decided they were going to live on the farm together before everything happened. George always had the thought of Lennie being too dangerous. Candy asked George if they still could have the farm together but “Before George answered, Candy dropped his head and looked down at the hay. He knew” (Steinbeck 94). George’s dreams were now

He loses all of his dreams towards the end of the story after he accidentally killed Curley’s Wife. It happened in the stable after Curley’s Wife walked in and started conversing with Lennie. He killed his puppy by accident and said he likes the softness of it, and Curley’s Wife let him feel her soft hair. She didn’t want him to ruin it and “She jerked her head sideways, and Lennie’s finger closed on her hair and hung on” (Steinbeck 91). Lennie shook her head and muffled her screams, then her neck was snapped. He tried to wake her up, “he lifted her arm and let it drop. For a moment he seemed bewildered. And then he whispered in a fright, ‘I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing’” (Steinbeck 91). Lennie knew he did something wrong and he wouldn’t be allowed to tend the rabbits, which was his dream. And he went to the brush George told him to go to if he got into trouble, but then went to find a cave and live alone. Lennie’s dream is over, and he can no longer live on the farm with George and Candy, tend the rabbits, or have a dog. George found him and knew he would have to be killed. He had a gun and told their dream once more, and then he shot him in the back of the head. “The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering” (Steinbeck 106). Lennie’s dream was gone, and so was