What Role Do Dreams Play In Of Mice And Men

ams are what keep us alive and, whether they be in our own or others, affect everyone. They latch and grow into others just as they do in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Dreams play an important role in Of Mice and Men for many reasons, one being that the story is about 2 farmhands, George and Lennie, which the author uses ample amounts of symbolism to the American Dream, and how elusive it is. George is Lennie’s friend, a burly man but has a mental disability making him act like a 6-year-old. They arrive at Curly’s farm looking for work, not trouble. They make many friends, such as Slim, Candy, Crooks, etc. all of which represent a different part of society. They all have different dreams that they each wish to achieve their dreams, which in turn affects their actions. George, Lennie, and the rest of their friends all try to achieve their dreams through means both good and bad.
George and Lennie are the main characters of Of Mice and Men and have a dream that is emphasized throughout the story.
One example of this is their farm dream which is repeated multiple times throughout the story, which is also shared with Candy. This is the most prominent and obvious dream presented in the story. In short, their dream is about what Lennie wishes to happen after all of their hard work is finished and the money they accumulate, and “it’d be all our own, an’ nobody could can us.”(58). George and Lennie both worked very hard on their dream and had goals set to achieve their dreams. Their goals also affected the plot and other characters, such as Candy, whom they inspire with their dream and even get to contribute to the
dream. The second dream shown in the story is Curley's wife’s dream. This dream can be seen from her actions throughout the story. She is constantly treated as an object or a harbinger of doom wherever she went, passing around her “eye” wherever she went. For example, she is quoted as “insert quote” among other indecencies. She is just constantly bashed for these things and driven away from all contact with men by her husband Curly and then all the other men at the ranch. She goes on to prove this in the last chapter of the story where she confesses how much frustrated she is and how much she wants to talk to the other men at the ranch. A third and final dream observed in Of Mice and Men is Crooks’ dream. Crooks is a black man who presumably, got all of his family’s property taken from him by white people. We can deduce this from 2 facts, he had property based upon his conversation with Lennie where he states, “quote”. This change from owning land in a white-dominant community to being a near slave left in his designated shed in the ranch is quite the change. This change could have been caused by many different things, perhaps his father gambled it all away, but from the connotation quote I mentioned earlier with there being no black people for miles around would make them an easy target to be oppressed. They, as many other black people had in the past, could have been stripped of all of their wealth, leaving them to have to work, leading to Crook’s predicament. This would explain his dream shown throughout Chapter 4 in his actions and the words of Curly’s wife. As soon as Crooks hears George, Lennie, and Candy’s dream he marks it off as just a dream, but after he hears their full plan, he is shown to be “I never seen a guy really do it… If you… guys would want a hand to work for nothing–just his keep, why I’d become an’lend a hand. I ain’t so crippled I can’t work like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to”(76). But as soon as Curly’s wife sees him standing up to her, she shuts him down, threatening him with some sort of punishment, most likely an accusation of rape(80). This dream that he has, influences the other characters around him, such as Curly’s wife, and his own actions in that chapter.