The American Dream In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Everybody has a dream. Everybody has some version of their own all American dream in their head. Very few ever achieve that dream however. This is what author John Steinbeck writes about in his 1937 novel Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men takes place in California in the 1930’s, and it follows a pair of two friends, Lennie, a large cognitively impaired man, and George, a smart small man, as they try to obtain their version of the American dream as migrant farm workers, to no success. Steinbeck shows this struggle of obtaining this goal of the perfect American dream due to capitalism, throughout the novel. In his novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses George, Crooks, and Curley’s Wife’s dreams to prove that the American dream is unattainable

In Of Mice and Men George and his friend Lennie are migrant farm workers who travel around a lot due to Lennie's cognitive impairment, the two friends share a dream of one day settling down on a little farm together. George says, “O.K. 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). This quote shows George’s dream of having his little farm. It also shows the very common dream of owning your own land during the 1930’s, which is also the general American dream amongst many people especially at this time. Later on as the book progresses, Lennie and George make some friends on the ranch. They meet Candy who is going to tag along with them to their ranch. They also make enemies though, in the form of Curley who wants to fight Lennie just for being big and tall.

Curley’s Wife throughout the novel is a big flirt according to all the men on the ranch. She is always coming around the bunks and talking to all the workers behind her husband's back. Everyone thinks that she is a “tramp”, but she does it because she is lonely and doesn’t really love her husband. One day in the stables, she reveals to Lennie that she wanted to be a movie star. Curley’s Wife says, “Come there when I was a kid. Well, a show come through, an’ I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’ let me. She says because I was on’y fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin like this, you bet.” (Steinbeck 88). This quote shows that Curley’s Wife had the very typical American dream of becoming famous, something that everyone dreams of. A little later she explains to Lennie that she met a man who said she would be perfect in the movies, and that he would send her a letter. He never sent her that letter though, and her dream was crushed. Curley’s Wife explains, “Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes–all them nice clothes like they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers took of me. When they had them previews I coulda went to them, an’ spoke in the radio, an’ it wouldn’ta cost me a cent because I was in the pitcher. An’ all them nice clothes like they wear. Because this guy says I was