Restrictions to Achieving the American Dream During 1920’s and early 1930 Americans dreamt of obtaining a world or place that they could peacefully spend the the rest of their lives in without any worries and that would benefit their future; however, societies standards restricted typical Americans from reaching that dream. Through The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men the authors, Steinbeck and Fitzgerald, suggest that if society standards entangle the dreams of a person then it retains them from surpassing that barrier to their dream they tried to achieve because a person’s reputation in the world needs to be exceptional thus they try to appease the society standards. The American Dream meant a great place with money and peace living …show more content…
Just the same as how Gatsby was unable to open up to Daisy about his early life and being poor from the beginning because “his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people…” ( Fitzgerald 105) which caused suspicion around Gatsby and how he got his money; however, “he was aware of the bizarre accusations that flavored conversation in his halls” (Fitzgerald 69). The suspicion around Gatsby was a society standard of money and having that money handed down from a family member or an older generation and because he didn’t have his money handed down Daisy wouldn’t have risked losing her reputation of being an old money just to be with Gatsby which lead Gatsby to his death waiting for her. Like Gatsby, George and Lennie were poor but “ain’t many guys travel around together,... maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other” (Steinbeck 35). George and Lennie were like brothers who helped each other, really George helped Lennie, but society’s standard of fighting alone caused George to kill Lennie because he needed to seem capable of being solely dependable to the other guys on the farm. The society's standards of living life with old money and fighting alone was settled for Americans pulling them down no matter how hard they fought to gain that dream they visioned they couldn’t have passed it. Both authors show the reputation Americans wanted during 1920 through early 1930 which was brought on by following the society’s standards leading to the downfall of society