The Influence Of Dreams In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Dreams may be described as something that happens when you sleep, while others may describe it as the very thing that drives mankind to a greater purpose. The novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, is set in the Great Depression. These two guys, George and Lennie, are travelling together for work and end up working at a ranch near Soledad, California. They first meet Candy, an old swamper with a dog.Lennie and George end up having some trouble the boss’ son, Curley and his wife. Most of the characters in this novel have a dream that influences their actions in different ways. Candy had a dream of living on property with George, so he becomes close friends with George while also becoming more confident, Lennie has a dream of tending to

This dream affected his behaviors by making him more confident, and becoming close friends with George as well as offering to put a down payment on the property they were planning to get. Candy was willing to do anything to get this dream to come true. He wanted to hoe the garden, Cook, and do the dishes so much that he was willing to help pay for it. On page 59, George and Candy are talking about the dream and Candy says, “‘S’pose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hunderd an’ fifty bucks I’d put in. I ain’t much good but I can cook…’” This is important because it shows how bad Candy wanted this to happen; he was willing give up all of his savings to make this dream a reality. Another way his actions are changed is that he became more confident when talking to Curley’s wife in Crook’s room on page 79. “But a change came over old Candy. ‘S’pose you get us canned. S’pose you do it. You think we’ll hit the highway an’ look for another lousy two bit job like this. You don’t know that we got our own ranch to go to, an’ our own house…” This distinguishes the fact that before the dream, Candy would not have stood up to Curley’s wife, thus making him more