The American dream was an appealing idea to the millions of very poor people living in America in the 1930s. Even though it’s been decades since, people still aim to achieve this goal. Many people believed that the United States was the land of opportunities and that is how the american dream became an inspiration for many in hope for a better life. In the novel “ of mice and men,” by John Steinbeck, illustrates the harsh reality of the american dream. This idea plays a huge role in almost every character in the novel, and shows how it affects every individual's life. For our main characters George and Lennie, and others like Crooks and Curley’s wife, the American dream was a yearning to achieve their goals in the harsh, unforgiving time of the Great Depression.
During the great depression in the 1930’s, people were treated immorally because of their race, social class or their gender. This made it harder for them to make their dream come true no matter how hard they worked for it. This idea contradicts itself since the american dream was placed in the Declaration of Independence which says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Thomas Jefferson). We later learn that the American Dream was not realistic and that the United States was not the promised land people had wished for.
“Of mice and men” is mainly centered in the dreams of George and Lennie. The dream impact the life of the two characters, George and Lennie, they represent migrant workers that have worked for other people for minimum pay with no real reward. They both dream of owning their own farm and to “live off the fatta the lan”(Steinbeck,13). Although, their dream is essentially the same, they both want it for different reasons. George dreams of having his own land and work for himself with no boss telling him what to do. He wanted independence He was the one who came up with the idea of achieving your dreams by working hard for them, which made him the creator in this version of the American Dream. He believed in the American Dream, and was determined to make the most out of their lives. Lennie, didn’t really understand what the American Dream was, but all he knew he wanted was to live somewhere where no one would try to hurt him or get mad at him if he did something wrong. But the most important part to his dream was having a lot of rabbits that he could play with and take care of because he liked touching things that look soft, so the idea of having lots of fluffy rabbits pushed him to chase after his dream. Lennie’s dream is mentioned throughout the whole novel. We hear it at the beginning when it all sounds like a ‘dream’, in the middle when we all think it could actually happen, and we also hear it at the end when not only his dream is shattered but everyone elses as well. This dream has survived so ...
