Vo1
Malyssa Vo
Mr. Bragg
English 1, Period 2
22 November 2016
The American Dream
The American Dream is something that everyone wants. It is the motivation to work hard to get what you want in life. In Steinback’s novel Of Mice and Men, he demonstrates the experiences of working for the American Dream in other people. Everyone is isolated in their own way and they all need a purpose in life. However, Steinback shows that even if some people work for it, the American Dream does not happen to all people.
For example, George and Lennie want their own place with a house, a garden, and animals such as rabbits because it represents independence and stability, but they cannot achieve it because of the class they are in, stuck in a cycle of poverty. They talk about the dream like they say it many times, George explains, “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 - Nuts! (14)” They want to be independent and work for themselves. They would finally have control of the jobs that are done. After the bickering about George wanting Lennie to leave, it gradually leads to a conversation about migrant workers; George claims, “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to. (13)” George and Lennie as well as all the other migrant workers are stuck in a cycle of poverty and solitude. They only have each other and are on their own. The lower the class the harder it is to move up.
Likewise, Crooks wants to be apart of George and Lennie’s dream because it represents a new start, but cannot achieve it because he is isolated and racia...
