The American Dream In Of Mice And Men

Rokas Baliukonis
Mr. Magdalenski
English I - Period 5
17 November 2022
The American Dream In Steinbeck’s Writing What truly is the American Dream? In Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men, there are two migrant workers named George and Lennie who are polar opposites: Lennie is a big guy who has a mental impairment whereas George is a small wise man. They arrive on a new farm in hopes of achieving their dream of having their own home. This leads to Lennie unintentionally harming Curley’s wife because he does not know how to control his own strengths. This causes George to kill Lennie by shooting him in the head. After Lennie is killed, George realizes that his dream is over. Steinbeck demonstrates that George’s dream is similar to the classic

Lennie's mental state causes him to do weird things such as petting pets and furs as if he were a little kid. These childish actions lead to George and Lennie losing their jobs, so they must start from scratch when trying to achieve their dream. As George and Lennie escape from Weed. In a town where Lennie gets in trouble with the law. George gets irritated with him and chews him out. As George chews out Lennie he says “‘Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easily. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble. No mess ' all” ...“If you don’ want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time.” “No - look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ’Cause'. I want you to stay with me.’”(Steinbeck 11-13). George is always the one most greatly affected by Lennie’s troublemaking, but his close relationship with Lennie causes him to be soft on him. This causes Lennie to never seem to learn his lesson and he continues to cause trouble making it harder for George and Lennie to achieve their dream. As George and Lennie travel on their journey it shows that Lennie is a liability to George making it harder for him to achieve his

Due to Lennie’s troubles and a failing economy, they are bound to fail their dream, and George knows this. They continue to persevere, but George knows that he and Lennie are in a cycle of Lennie continuing to cause trouble and them losing their jobs. After they lose their jobs George tries to keep Lennie in line by telling him “(Before they get to the new job George tells Lennie not to speak when they meet the boss)” George and Lennie have just lost both of their jobs because of Lennie’s trouble actions, but this does not stop Lennie from continuing to believe that this dream is possible to achieve. George knows that one way or another Lennie will continue to accidentally cause trouble. George tries to keep Lennie in line in hope of achieving the dream, but he knows that it simply isn’t possible. Even though Lennie deeply cares about the dream he still continues to not be able to control his actions. George and Lennie may seem simple and humble but it is so much harder to achieve than most would