Of Mice And Men Passage Analysis

“And at last Muley approached Tom. ‘You goin’ over the State line?’ he asked. ‘You gonna break your parole?’ And Tom shook himself free of the numbness. ‘Jesus Christ, it’s near sunrise,’ he said loudly. ‘We got to get goin’.’ And the others came out of their numbness and moved toward the truck” (Steinbeck 113). This passage occurs at Uncle John’s house while the Joads prepare to leave for California. Muley questions Tom about breaking his parole, but Tom ignores his words. In the subtext of this passage, Muley clearly possesses suspicions and worries about Tom breaking parole by going out of state. Through Muley’s use of questions, he subtly attempts to convince Tom that if someone catches him breaking his parole, there will be consequences. When Tom hears Muley’s words, he does not consider them because inside he knows that he may be punished for moving outside of Oklahoma. By changing the subject, Tom avoids discussing what could happen if somebody discovers he broke his parole. Tom felt “numb” about the subject, which reveals his apprehensiveness toward
Steinbeck portrays “The American Dream” in this passage because during the 1930’s many farmers whose land was taken away aspired to find work in California. People glorified the idea of moving to California because of the rumors that there was a great number of job openings and also great food. Throughout the book, it is the Joads’—and many other families’—dream to move to California. As they are on their journey they begin to hear that California is not what the owner men were telling them. In the end, they ultimately do not live out their dream. The idea that was in their heads was a lie because so many others were looking for jobs there. Tom Joad’s family maintains hope in their dream for most of the novel, despite warnings from others they