Lennie’s dream is a very simplified version of George’s. Lennie, who loves animals and small soft things, just wants to go with George and tend the animals on the farm that he and George are going to buy. As Lennie believes everything that George tells him, it’s simply a matter of time, not “if”, till they get the farm, “George, how long’s it gonna be till we get that little place an’ live on the fatta lan’- an’ rabbits” (2.15)? This way Steinbeck really makes his readers appreciate how hard life was for George especially, as he had to watch over Lennie.
Candy is not very content with life until he overhears George and Lennie. He is crippled, in constant fear of being canned and only has his dog for company. When Candy’s dog is shot by Carlson, Candy says nothing about it except to George later that day. The idea of leading a life that is run by himself with friends for the rest of his few years is a real prospect to him as he has no one and nothing to look forward to .Candy who never believed in those kinds of dreams is now an important part of the circle and is adamant about joining the two of them, he would never have done this if Lennie and George had not turned up as he liked to do things with people not on his own.
Curley’s wife has a different kind of dream altogether. Instead of a plot of land that she can legally say is her own, she wants fame, fortune and admiration. The only person that she tells her dream of a life in Hollywood to is Lennie because she knows that he will not only not understand her but will also not tell anyone about it. She does not like Curley, “Sure I gotta husban’. You all seen him. Swell guy, ain’t he” (4.77)? Curley’s wife tells this to Candy Crooks and Lennie. She also tells Lennie about what would be happening if she had gone to Hollywood with the man that she met at the ‘River Dance Palace’: “If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet” (9.87). This is Curley’s wife’s dream, that she’d be invited back by the man that she met, to Hollywood, and begin her life again as a public star. Even if she had not been killed it was very unlikely that she would have been able to go forward with this dream and would have stayed with Curley until the time came that she got so frustrated she would leave him.
Crooks has a dream that is unlike anyone else’s. He grew up on a farm with only white people around him and his father was always unhappy about him playing with other white kids. It is only now that Crooks understands why his father disliked him playing with the white kids and that is because of the unfair relationship between whites and blacks in America in the early years of the 1900’s. The whites persuaded each other that they were superior to the Black race and so they had priority over the Blacks. Crooks wishes that he could be treated as an equal like many other Blacks did, but also he just wants to own a small plot of land and farm it without harassment from Whites and the authorities who are also biased against the Blacks. Crooks is a cripple and is lonely but the reason that he does not base his life around this dream of his is that he has seen far too many men go crazy, “I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but ever’ time a whore-houseor a black game took what it takes”. This is why he is intelligent enough not to think, that if all that he can think about is his dream then it will happen.
Dreams in ‘Of Mice and Men’ are very important as they portray the characters deepest thoughts and what they really feel and we can also see that things like dreams control men in bad times. The ‘Great Depression’ abruptly ruined many innocent and hard working men’s lives; this is how many dreams started up.