Discusshow Steinbeck is exploring the significance of dreams in "Of Mice and Men"
Discuss how Steinbeck is exploring the significance of dreams in "Of Mice and Men"
One of the themes in "Of mice and Men" by John Steinbeck is the dreams that people have during the American Depression. He explores the sufferings they had, which is why he probably chose the title "Of Mice and Men" for his novel. He probably compared the lives of men in America in the American Depression with the lives of mice and how similar they were; the men in that time had to keep moving around the country searching for a job and mice had to keep moving because their home were constantly destroyed by the farmer as portrayed in the poem 'To a Mouse' by Robert Burns.
In the book he explores the dreams the men and one woman have on a ranch outside the California's Salinas Valley, the place where he spent his childhood. Because of his experience of living in the Salinas ranch, it enables him to create believable characters by giving them proper 'American Slang' accents and also give a good description of the Salinas. The author may have thought the dreams as a significant part of people's lives; something that acted as a hope and future. Some characters, such as Slim and Carlson, do not talk about dreams; this may suggest that dreams are only for discontented characters.
John Steinbeck enters the main characters, George and Lennie who are two men travelling around the country looking for jobs as Lennie always gets "in trouble" and loses "ever' job" they get, into the setting of the California's Salinas Valley. From the very beginning of the book I can see that John Steinbeck's style of writing is plain and simple, which makes the visualisation of the setting very real. Even though the setting is very descriptive in most parts of the story, Steinbeck still uses plain language but with minimal adjectives so it is enough for the reader to imagine what he wants. For example, Steinbeck writes, "the shade climbed up the hills toward the top." This is enough to make the reader picture the shadow moving and he has not included any unnecessary fancy description using metaphors or adverbs. The writer generally tends to use a lot of adjectives and very little personification, similies and mainly the only time he has used a metaphor is when he describes Lennie's hand being a "big paw. " This makes the book become very easily transformed into a play.
The structure of the book also makes it very easy to be converted into a play. There are short six chapters that contain an important event being an episode, which can be made into Acts of a play. Steinbeck has used a general order to write these chapters, which makes it very alike to an act of a play. He sets the scene and then allows the characters in the chapter to be introduced. After the main event has ended, he describes the setting once again. It has been designed very similarly to a play and most of the chapters are in dialogue.
Steinbeck has also used this structure to write the whole novel. He firstly describes the setting that is in a place " a few miles south of Soledad" where "the Salinas River drops in close to the hill-side bank and runs deep and green." He then introduces the characters, which are involved in the main part of the novel. The author ends the story by exiting most of the characters and returns to the setting of "the deep green pool of the Salinas River."
Some people, however, may interpret this style of writing and structure to ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Steinbeck has also used this structure to write the whole novel. He firstly describes the setting that is in a place " a few miles south of Soledad" where "the Salinas River drops in close to the hill-side bank and runs deep and green." He then introduces the characters, which are involved in the main part of the novel. The author ends the story by exiting most of the characters and returns to the setting of "the deep green pool of the Salinas River."
Some people, however, may interpret this style of writing and structure to create reality in their imagination so it is clear for them to understand that in this situation, George and Lennie seem unlikely to achieve much in their life. It also shows the significance of dreams to be unclear. But still, George shares the dream of the rabbit farm with Lennie and how they can be their own masters.
The dream of the farm seems very distant and dim to begin with but as the story progresses to when Candy, a useless worker, who also wants to join in with the dream offers his compensation money ("two hundred an' fifty dollars 'cause" he "los' " his "hand") to buy the farm, the dream seems to have a possibility of coming true. The dream seems significant to the trio's freedom in future life, especially for Candy as he has already foreseen what will happen to him through his old dog that had to be shot for his age and uselessness. John Steinbeck uses the symbolism of Candy's dog to represent Candy's own life. Candy already predicts that the boss will "can" him "purty soon" and he "won't have no place to go." The similar comparison Candy makes of himself to his dog makes him scratch "the stump of his wrist nervously" and feel miserable, he tells George and Lennie that "when they can" him, he "wisht somebody'd shoot" him. The sad life Candy lives makes the dream of the farm most significant to him as the reader sympathises for him.
The dream also is significant to George's and Lennie's lives as it could mean freedom and labour for another man. The excitement of this coming event must be kept a secret from the other characters as "they are li'ble to can" them so they "can't make no stake." But even though Lennie has promised to not talk about the dream to others, he tells Crooks the stable buck. Crooks who is a "nigger" seems hesitant to talk to Lennie at first because he does not like white men that much as they do not treat him as an equal. But he soon notices that Lennie is innocent and even talks to him about how he feels about how everyone treats him; he expresses his feelings on being lonely and his anger, confusion in equal rights of all people. He talks to Lennie about how he "needs somebody-to be near him," and expresses his anger about not being allowed to "play rummy 'cause" he "was black."
But because Crooks has spent most of his life without company he has the time to understand the world and "read plenty of books" about men's dreams, which makes him the character that tells the view of the author and also hints about the ending of the book. Crooks had said before that he has seen "guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land" and "ever' guy got land in his head" but "never god-damn one of 'em" really fulfilled his dream of owning land.
Some people may not believe in Crook's after his revengeful idea of George not coming back to Lennie. I see Crooks as Candy and Lennie does- I do not believe in Crooks, as Iwant the dream to come true. Crooks himself knows this as he says "if I say something, why it's just a nigger sayin' it" However, John Steinbeck has shown that the significance of dreams has affected everyone including Crooks when he says "I'd come an' lend a hand" But at the end of the chapter, Crook's shows that he is not weak by saying "I wouldn't want no place like that."
Even though they are not willing to believe it, Crooks' criticism on dreams is correct and however many times George tells Lennie to "never speak to "Curley" and "Don't even take a look at that bitch"(Curley's wife), George's, Lennie's and Candy's dream of the farm is bound to fate due Lennie's simple mind and relationship with Curley and his wife.
But John Steinbeck does no just state the dream's failiure; he uses a subtle structure of events that lead up to the devastation of the dream. The technique he adopts makes the outcome of the dream uncertain. He makes Lennie mistakes get increasingly worse but still keep the realness of the dream so near. He keeps the strength of the dream in the money that is saved in Candy's bank but weakens the dream with Lennie's increasingly worsened mistakes from feeling a "girl's dress" to killing mice by "pettin' em' too hard" and to breaking Curley's hand. It becomes predictable that Lennie may just do even worse things and ruin the dream but is it uncertain, as the trio are so close in fufilling the dream of the farm. But when Lennie kills the puppy and Curley's wife at the end of the book, it is almost certain that he has shattered the dream.
But the shattering of dreams has happened before in the book to Curley's wife-she had a dream of becoming a movie star but her dream can never come true as she "married Curley" and thought her "ol' Lady stole" the letter from the people who promised her a place in the movies. She becomes an oxymoron and demonstrates to Lennie her supposed talent of being "a natural" by making "a small grand gesture with her arm and hand to show that she could act."
This part of the story is quite emotional, this shows Curley's wife's dream not only 'an every girl's' but the way she tells her dream of becoming a movie star with regret makes the dream very significant to her. John Steinbeck tries to achieve this atmosphere using the setting and his style of writing.
Steinbeck explores the sorrow in the significance of the dream and tries to support it by his choice of words. In this chapter, he uses words such as "lazy", "humming" and "buzz", these words give a calm and soft effect on the setting, which prepares for Curley's wife's sad past.
The writer also creates the tranquil mood by using different contrasts of light. In this chapter he writes that "the afternoon sun sliced in through the cracks of the barn walls," the feeling of afternoon sun is in a cool barn seems bright and soothing.
The stillness in the barn, which gives a silent atmosphere, is made aware to the reader by making them explore around the barn. John Steinbeck describes the setting as if the reader can see all around them, he takes their mind's eye around the setting step by step. In the sentence "the afternoon sun sliced in through the cracks of the barn walls and lay in bright lines on the hay" shows Steinbeck's technique; he first wants you to focus on the sunlight coming through the cracks of the barn and then he makes you follow the light onto the hay.
Steinbeck not only wants his readers to be aware of the inside surroundings but also distant surroundings and he does this by using sounds. In chapter five, even though the setting is in the barn, Steinbeck makes the reader aware of what is happening outside by writing about "the clang of horse-shoes on the playing peg and the shouts of men, playing, encouraging, jeering." This also perhaps adds to the soundless and calm atmosphere in the barn. The noiseless atmosphere also enables the reader's full attention to the dialogues, which only seem to be the voices of the characters.
This also happens in chapter four, where Crooks shares his opinion of men's dreams and talks about his childhood when "white kids come to play" with him and everyone was equal. The objects in the "harness room" are stationary; the writer makes the reader discover Crook's room where "there were pegs on which hung broken harnesses." The same silence draws full attention from the reader to Crook's feelings of the past and present, the seriousness also makes the dreams of Crook's seem significant.
As he has written about Crook's dreams, the writer has shown that he has considered dreams from different people and made each dream seem as important as each other by focusing on the dialogue and not what is happening around the characters. Because Steinbeck has included Crook's dreams within a book within a racist society makes me appreciate the significance of Crook's dreams as people in that time rarely get to hear about a coloured person's dreams.
The dreams of Crook's are shown to be so important to him that he gets angry and takes revenge on Lennie for what white people have done to life. He tries to overpower Lennie by frightening him with the prospect of George "ain't coming back." This makes the reader think Crook's has a cruel personality and distrust his views of the results of men's dreams.
These reasons may be probably why the author chose to use Crooks to give his views about the significance of dreams never coming true so it would not give away the ending. Steinbeck has written the book of dreams involving the reader so when the novel ends in Steinbeck's views it also changes the view of the reader about the reality of dreams in those times and also how significant they were to people. It also changes the way the readers think about characters such as Crooks.
Sheena Lam 08/05/07 08:23