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Theme Of The American Dream In Of Mice And Men

764 Words4 Pages

There are many themes throughout the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. One of those themes is the American dream. The American Dream has been I thought in everybody’s mind since America was founded and Steinbeck shows each individual dreams of the characters and how they can be achieved. Some characters dreams are naive and unrealistic, others are achievable. Steinbeck’s themes shows that the dreams in the book that are realistic come true, but the ones that aren’t don’t. Curley’s wife’s dream shows Steinbeck’s theme in that her American dream is very unrealistic and it is one of the dreams that don't come true. Curley’s wife has a very vain dream. She wants to become an actress and live in Hollywood. To always have the spotlight on her and live and extravagant lifestyle. Her dream was so unrealistic because she didn’t ever work for it. “Nother time I met this guy, and he was in pitchers. Went out to …show more content…

Lennie had the dream of tending to the rabbits on the farm that he and George dreamt of. Throughout the novel, Lennie kills a lot of things. Lennie doesn’t know his own strength and tending to the rabbits would not be the smartest decision. He kills Curley’s wife while trying to calm her down after touching her dress. “Don’t go yelling. He said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck”(91) Lennie doesn’t know his own strength because it takes a lot of effort to snap somebody neck, and rabbits are so much smaller and weaker than humans are. In the conversation with Curley’s wife Lennie says how he likes to pet soft things. If George and Lennie’s dream came true. Lennie would have probably killed all the rabbits he tried to tend to. Adding another point to Steinbeck’s theme of dreams that can’t come

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The death of Curley’s wife is a very shocking event which is what triggers George’s decision to shoot Lennie. She does nothing wrong and without noticing Lennie kills her; just how he killed the mouse and the puppy killed the puppy. Curley’s wife’s death is a tragedy and symbolizes Lennie’s untroubled life coming to an end. Even though Lennie is not a bad person after the death of Curley’s wife, we can no longer think of him as an innocent child-like person. George and Lennie’s life was about survival, but centred on the innocent dream of the rabbits.

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Lennie constantly fears that his actions will anger George, who will then punish him by taking away his rabbit-managing privileges. During the debacle with Curley's wife, he says “‘George gonna say I done a bad thing. He gonna ain’t gonna me tend no rabbits’”(91). Lennie represents innocence and

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At the beginning of the novel he accidently kills a mouse, and then a puppy, and ultimately Curley’s wife. As he said, “I can still tend the rabbits, George?... I didn't mean no harm, George.” (65), he may have not meant to harm anything or anyone but he did not understand or accept the severity of his actions, instead he was concerned about the tending of his future rabbits. Lennie’s actions solidified Steinbeck’s stance on the true nature of mankind through his diction.

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In this episode, Curley’s wife is having a conversation with Lennie about her American Dream of an actress in a desperate attempt to cure her loneliness. She also consolidates Lennie about the death of the puppy. Lennie confesses his desideratum to tend the rabbits because he simply likes to pet nice things. Curley’s wife then makes the big mistake of asking him to stroke her hair, and Lennie being Lennie goes too far, gets scared, and snaps Curley’s wife’s neck,”He shook her then, and he was angry with her… And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.”

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The American Dream is only attainable to those who are privileged and considered truly American. Though many immigrants believe that they can grasp the American Dream, it is always out of reach and can never be achieved. The American Dream can never be accomplished through working hard and determination. Often, people chase the American Dream with high expectations for a new life, and they are often disappointed when failure strikes. Because of this, many of the characters in Of Mice and Men struggle to achieve the dreams they’ve been longing for.

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In conclusion, to express that the american dream is impossible Steinbeck used conversation, conflicts, and events. Throughout of mice and men George and Lennie got into many situations where they felt scared , worried, and angry. Together the plan was to get the money to live in a small place, tend to the rabbits and alpha so they are happy. But things happen such as George killing Lennie that make the american dream impossible to achieve.

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The American Dream The American dream is the desire of all most all the characters in the novella Of Mice and Men. This is shown in many ways in many kinds of dreams whether it be becoming Rich and famous or just having the means to survive on their own each character has their own American dream. The first example of the american dream would be George 's dream. George wanted nothing more than to own his own farm and survive off of the land with Lennie which is shown in this quote “we’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof ...”

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