Of Mice And Men American Dream

The American Dream is the idea of success that people can achieve from hard-work and determination. In John Steinbeck’s 1937 novel, Of Mice and Men, many characters yearn for the ideal American Dream. Two migrant ranch workers, George and Lennie, dream about having their own ranch with many different types of animals and crops. George takes care of Lennie, who is a strong, mentally disabled man who doesn’t know the magnitude of his strength. George always tells Lennie that he will tend to the rabbits on their ranch. They travel across California searching for a decent job during the Great Depression. Due to Lennie’s lack of comprehending people's actions, he gets into trouble wherever they go. The two men end up at the Tyler ranch and
Steinbeck uses Crooks, a african-american “stable buck” who has a crooked back. He lives alone in a barn with all of the mules and horses because the black man “ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse” (68). People did not question segregation at the time. People of different races didn't have the same opportunities as white people. Which made the ideal American Dream even harder to attain. While Crooks and Lennie are talking in Crook’s bunk, Lennie mentions their plan to have a ranch of their own. At first, Crooks tells Lennie how impossible their idea is. He says he has “seen hundreds of men” (74), with the same mindset of getting a piece of land and building up their life. Crooks explains that their dream will never become a reality and “it’s all just in their heads” (74). Then, Candy, the old and handicapped swamper walks into the bunk; Crooks, Lennie and Candy talk about their plan of how they will get the ranch. Once Crooks understands how close the men actually are at achieving freedom, he gains interest. He says that he will work for free, and that he will just “lend a hand” (76). This quote conveys the idea that Crooks would do anything just for freedom and friendship, even without making money or having the perfect American Dream. His chance in being apart of the dream is squandered when
She believed that her beauty and charm would carry her through life, rather than her hard work. Though she was a women, and women at that time were oppressed, she still believed she had the potential to succeed. In the novel, she is portrayed as a gorgeous woman who is very flirtatious. Curley and his wife had only been married for two weeks before George and Lennie had come to the ranch. Curley and his wife met at a Riverside Dance Palace. The same night that she met Curley, she met a man who could possibly get her into a Hollywood movie and become a movie star. When Lennie and Curley’s wife were talking in the barn about her dreams, she said “He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon’s he got back in Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it” (88). She never got the letters that he said he was going to send; and she believes that her mother took the letters. Curley's wife says that she did not want to be in a house where she “couldn’t get nowhere or make something of” (88), herself; so she marries Curley. Curley’s wife shows her innocence and how she doesn’t understand that the only reason those men talked to her was her looks. Additionally, she only wanted the material things that came with her dream. She tells Lennie in the barn, “ [I] Coulda been in the movies an’ had nice clothes… an’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had