American Dream - Of Mice and Men

The book Of Mice and Men follows George and Lennie on their journey to reach the American Dream. Although the American Dream can vary from person to person, the main goal of the dream is to gain something they desire. George and Lennie’s goal is to have their own land and make their own decisions. “Someday-we’re gonna get the jack together and we gonna have a little house and a couple of acres” (Steinbeck 14). To reach their dream, George lies for Lennie because of his mental disabilities. Even though George is lying, it doesn’t compromise his moral character because he is doing this to protect Lennie. Later on in the book, Lennie accidentally murders Curley’s wife to prevent himself from getting in trouble. Some may argue it compromises his moral character, but due to his mental disabilities he wasn’t able to know his actions were wrong. George and Lennie were not able to achieve the American Dream, but they did try to accomplish it without compromising their moral character. Curley’s wife also had an American Dream. Her dream is to go to Hollywood and be in movies, but she wasn’t able to do this because of her mother. “I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t… make something of myself… So I married Curley” (Steinbeck 88). On her way to reach her dream, she wasn’t always honest. She didn’t stay true to her moral character by settling to marry Curley. If she would have stayed true to her morals, she might have had a better chance at reaching her dream. “A guy needs somebody-to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody” (Steinbeck 72). The stable buck, Crooks, believes the American Dream is to have a best friend. This might seem to be a simple dream, but due to the time period, it was actually rather complicated. Crooks is African American and therefore looked down upon by the other workers. No one wants to be friends with a guy like Crooks. Crooks accepted his fate of never being able to accomplish his dream, but stayed true to his moral