Discuss the Importance of Dreams in 'Of Mice and Men'. In What Ways Can the Novella be seen As an Implicit Comment on Contemporary American Society?

Discuss the Importance of Dreams in ‘Of Mice and Men’. In What Ways Can the Novella be seen As an Implicit Comment on Contemporary American Society?

‘OK. Some day – we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and…’ This is the dream of George and Lennie and the many other Americans sharing the same life style. In John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ it would seem the characters lives depend on them still believing in their dreams and that they will come true. In this essay I will describe the dreams that the different characters possess and how they effect their beliefs and their day to day lives.

The ‘American dream’, which arose from the way America was first populated, was that of George and Lennie. By the end of the 1930s, due to the Wall Street Crash and the lack of virgin land still unclaimed by the American people, the dream was shattered. The economic depression in America that was triggered by the Wall Street crash of 1929 was the cause of the poor, laborious, and undeserved life that George, Lennie and many other Americans had to face. They would travel from farm to farm working for their food, their shelter and a small amount of money, which could, and often was, blown on a weekly night out at the local pub or whore house. In this nomadic life style people like George and Lennie owned only the essential and portable possessions, so in the case of George and Lennie were very grateful to have each other. Even though George often complains about having to take Lennie with him where he goes and having to take responsibility for some of his child like mistakes, it is obvious to the reader that George needs Lennie as his friend and work partner and he loves him dearly. Lennie is dependent on George as he has the mental age of a three-year-old child yet is stuck in the body of a huge and very strong grown man. He often makes mistakes and would not be able to achieve much at all without George as his father figure and protector. Like a father, George often has to tell the story of the dream and owning their own land to Lennie. The story is told over and over again to Lennie like a bedtime story, to the point that Lennie knows the story off by heart himself but just likes being told it. The simplicity of the dream in that they only dream of their own bit of land and Lennie, the rabbits, shows how poor their lifestyle was and the way they lived.

This dream would not be expected as a dream but more a humble ambition, however it is ironic that they are unable even to succeed in fulfilling this humble dream. The dream is like a myth to George and Lennie. It is a story that George knows will not come true but Lennie believes in, similar to a child being told a mythical story such as the one of mermaids and sailors.

George and Lennie meet Candy who has been working at this same farm for a long time. He is an old man who can hardly ...

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George and Lennie meet Candy who has been working at this same farm for a long time. He is an old man who can hardly work as his hand got crushed while working on the ranch. His companion is his dog, which is old, smelly and blind and gets put down by Crooks as the other men cannot stand the smell anymore and believe it is best for the dog. He was given compensation for the injury he obtained at the farm with a relatively low sum of money for being unable to work properly ever again. This tells us that the boss on the farm exploits him and probably the other workers to giving us the impression of a very uncaring boss employee relationship. George and Lennie let Candy know of their dream of their land and mention the property and land that they would be willing to purchase if they could make the money. Candy then tells George and Lennie of his compensation money and how that could make up enough to buy the property and land. George is reluctant at first to tell Candy about the place as it has been a dream of George and Lennie’s for so long and it had always been just those two in the dream.

‘Sure,’ said George. ‘That’s right. You couldn’t find it in a hundred years.’

He does not want to let Candy know about the whereabouts of the place as it is a place that they believe they are destined to own and they do not want to let it slip away. They are very cautious about sharing even though it is out of their grasp. This may be an implicit criticism of capitalism as if they were to let Candy in on their place they would be closer to fulfilling their dream.

Then they find out about the some of money Candy is willing to invest if he gets to live and work on the land:

‘They fell into silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true.’

The dream they had had and spoken for all this time could now possibly be becoming a reality. Before, it had been a dream but a distant one and one they thought would never actually come true. Candy needs to be part of it for his sake as well. He sees it as an escape of his nightmare of having to work in the poor house and using his compensation money to keep him away from the poor house is an easy and safe getaway to him.

All the men go into town and leave Lennie and Crooks on the farm. Crooks reluctantly lets Lennie into his room and Lennie tells Crooks of the land they will be buying and Crooks begins o grow fond of the idea and wants to be a part of it if it goes ahead.

‘…If you…guys would want a hand to work for nothing – just his keep, why I’d come an’ lend a hand. I ain’t so crippled I can’t work like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to.’

He wants to be part of this fairy tale dream, which sounds like heaven to the labourers. He acts as a tough man in day to day life but here he lets his guard down, as he would love to be part of the dream, showing an element of vulnerability in his character. He is treated like scum because he is black and feels it is especially unfair the way he is treated, as he is a skilled, local and native man.

‘I ain’t a southern negro,’ he said. ‘I was born right here in California.’

He feels hard done by as he is much like Lennie and George and the rest of the farm workers and comes from the same sort of childhood upbringing. However, he is treated very differently to everyone else because of the colour of his skin. If he had been the same man but with white skin he would have had a relatively high social standing but because he is black, he is treated as the lowest of the low. He is attacked by the likes of Curley’s wife just because he is an easy target as they have a higher social standing and he can’t stick up for himself. In his situation, a dream of his would obviously be racial equality and to be treated as an equal by his work mates, his boss and women. This shows how the equality (part of the American dream) was not so when it came to race and the dream is in the passed. This is emphasised by the 1906 civil code being very old now.

The characters in ‘Of Mice and Men’ are generally not very bright and Curley’s wife is a true example of this. Everyone in the novella longs to have loving relatives and to escape their loneliness. Curley’s wife is the only character with close family in the form of her mother. Before marrying Curley, she had previously been told that she could make it to the movies with the help of a man in a bar. However, in her stupidity she did not realise that it was just the way he was trying to chat her up and she believed it. Realistically she was just being naïve, as she has no talent or experience of acting. With this, she awaited a letter from this man, which never came and was never going to come but she blames her mother for blocking the post and walks out on her. This is ironic as many people in the novella dream to have close family like a mother but she walked out on hers trying to follow her own separate dream. Her dream is in the movies, as with many others from the time dreaming of fame and fortune in Hollywood (dream factory). Here, many people like Curley’s wife are sucked in by this factory and become completely reliant on fulfilling their dream.

George and Lennie’s dream of owning their own bit of land and living without a boss to make them work and the insecurity of their work makes their dream seem like paradise to them. The dream is powerful in that it draws in others such as Crooks and Candy and it is what keeps Lennie and George going in what they do because they have this goal. This dream and the other dreams the different characters in the book possess are truly very important to the characters as they give them something to work towards and aim for in their world in which they are poor, unloved, insecure and in ownership of no material possessions. Their dream is a reflection of the way of American life in the 1930s and John Steinbeck tries to portray, through the novella, what the contemporary American way of life was for the people and the hardships they faced. America has failed the people in the novella. America has failed its poor.

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