How significant is the concept of the American Dream in the novel Of Mice and Men?

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How significant is the American Dream in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men?

To obtain the knowledge of the significance of the American Dream in its entirety we will have to delve John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men looking deeper than the letters on the page. In this novel the interpretation of the American Dream is to someday gain independence. For many the Dream is hope to achieve a goal, yet it can be an illusion of hope for someone who himself believes that one day he could lead a better life. In the following pages I will try to interpret the true meaning of the American Dream in as many aspects as possible and also I will explore the way that John Steinbeck, the author, has centred his characters, language and structure around the hope given by the American Dream.

The Classic American Dream is to achieve independence and freedom through hard work and through owning your own piece of land. “Live off the fatta’ the land”. To many in the story the Dream is to be sought after alone, but for George loneliness is what drives a man to the edge, he needs a companion even if it is the childlike mind of Lennie. “With us it ain’t like that…gives a damn about us” (pg 15). This quote delivers the point of the necessity and importance of companionship because if you have no companion you are likely to go nuts.  

Many characters in the novel are on the quest of the Classic American Dream, they include George, Lennie, Candy and Crooks. There belief in the American dream is split into 4 main parts, illusion, hope, ambition and delusion. For George the cycle of the American dream is as follows, illusion-hope-ambition-illusion. The Dream is an illusion at the start as George is starting to come to terms with how the world has changed from the collapse of the economy. Then the Dream starts to turn into Hope as he starts his job on the ranch and in the back of his mind he hopes for a better life. Then when Candy is told of George and Lennie’s plans to buy a plot from an old friend and live the Dream he decides to help George and Lennie with the financial side of things in exchange for a part of the Dream.

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 For Lennie the Dream’s cycle starts off at ambition and then turns into a delusion as Lennie starts to go haywire. The shining moment that shows Lennie being delusional is at the end when Lennie hallucinates about his Aunt and the rabbits (pg 99-100) Crooks on the other hand is fighting a long and

lonely struggling battle for equality and freedom from the oppression of white people. The only part of the story where Crooks actually has a flicker of hope that he could one day gain independence is the Crooks chapter (pg 66). “You say you ...

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