As lowly farmhands they dream of a better life, which acts as a distraction from the reality of their lives as itinerant labourers.
They dream of being their own bosses, having security and hope to make just enough money to live comfortably. To George the dream evokes happy memories of his childhood. Lennie helps George keep the dream alive; his innocence allows him to believe in the dream when the cynical George would have let the dream go. Lennie is obsessed and transfixed with the fact that he is going to ‘tend the rabbits’.
Their dream is ambitious, both for different reasons; for George it is the idea and hope that one day he will be self sufficient and work for himself by “Living off the fatta the lan”, whereas for Lennie it is to tend the rabbits because he likes to pet soft things.
In the times when Steinbeck set this novel, America was in The Depression; jobs were hard to come by and positions lacked security. Some could say that George and Lennie’s hopes and aspirations for the future are like the mythical ‘American Dream’. This is the idea of living a life of independence and freedom in which success is a definite possibility.
We get the impression that George isn’t as excited about the dream as Lennie, but it is later on revealed that he is just more cautious about that excitement. His hopes and desires allows him to protect Lennie’s innocence but another part of him wants to grow up and escape the pain of hope by indulging in women and drink. Additionally, George explodes at Lennie when he imagines what it would be like to be the dream-life of a traveling worker without any burdens; “If I was alone I could live so easy”. George describes a carefree life and emphasizes that Lennie is the thing that’s stopping him from living like that. George’s life without Lennie is one without responsibility and carefree involving Drinking, Gambling, and Sex, but also loneliness.
Candy doesn't have much hope at the start of the story he is old and not much use to the ranch. But when he meets Lennie and George and finds out their aspirations to own their own farm, he suddenly sees how his future could be improved. Candy is concerned about being useless. He knows that he is only employed on the ranch because he lost his hand there, but he is afraid that eventually he will be “canned” just like his dog that he was powerless to save from being shot by Carlson.
When he hears George and Lennie's dream he sees a future in which he will own a share in a farm which will save him from his fear of being too old to work and eventually being fired. He is willing to put up his compensation money, which he was given after his accident at the ranch in order to achieve this dream.
When Candy decides to collaborate with them and the idea of owning a farm becomes tangible, none of the men know how to respond What seemed like a faint hope to George now seems possible; “This thing that they had never really believed in was coming true.” For George and Lennie their dream serves as a diversion from the strife of everyday life and not as a realistic goal.
In summary the dreams expressed so far in ‘Of Mice And Men’ are close to fantasy, but simple enough to do. The main theme of Lennie and Georges dream is a place to ‘belong’; “We’d jus’ live there, we’d belong there’, as they do not have anywhere of their own; “our own place where we belonged…” and have no family, in fact they only have each other. It also provides reassurance to their lives and the hope of one day finding security and living the ‘American Dream’
