Of Mice and Men discussion.

Candy is different to the other labourers on the farm because he is the oldest there. Candy has a dream of a companionship; this is shown when Carlson kills his dog to put it out of its misery. Candy overhears the dream of George and Lennie which was to have there own house and their own land. George and Lennie were unwilling to let Candy be part of there dream, but they later change their mind because candy has £350 in the bank to put towards the place ‘Thas three hundred and fifty bucks id put in’. The money candy would put in would be over half of the money needed for the land. The writer John Steinback made the dream so close and possible to make the story more interesting. Candy is prepared to put more money in because this is also his dream and he is getting old, he also will not do any labour work on the land so this makes him want to put in more money.

In the 1920s blacks were treated horribly and as second class citizens. Crooks is a black man living and working on the ranch and has no control over anybody. He lives separately from the rest of the white men because blacks were not aloud to be around white people in them times. Crooks is the only character in the book who realises that the dream of owning land will never come true, he knows ths because he has seen many men with that dream and all failed. Crooks makes an offer to George, Lennie and Candy. The offer that Crook gives is to work for them and receive no pay but just his keep. This is sad because it shows that Crooks dislikes living on the ranch and it shows that he also has a dream of his own land.

Curley’s wife is the only woman living on the ranch. Life on the ranch for her is good except when Curley is around. This is because Curley rapes and mistreats her. Curley’s wife is introduced to us when Curley starts a fight on Lennie; we are never told his wife’s name. Curley’s wife has a dream of being in the pictures. Men on the ranch avoid Curley’s wife because if Curley caught the men talking to her he would start a fight. They are scared of fighting Curley because he is the bosses son, they could lose their job if they hurt Curley. Curley wife is angry that the men on the ranch avoid her because all she wants to do is talk to people, she gets lonely by herself. Curley’s wife’s hopes and dreams were to be in the pictures or in a circus. Being married to Curley was totally the opposite of her dreams because she cannot be I the pictures if she is on the ranch married to Curley. Curley is described as hating people bigger than him and always trying to start fights with people bigger than him; he is also described as being cruel to his wife and always telling her what to do, even if she doesn’t want to. Curley’s wife’s hopes and dreams turn tragically wrong when she urges Lennie to feel her soft hair. Lennie kills her in a panic when he doesn’t let go of her hair, he gets worried that hill will not be able to tend the rabbits.

The dream of George and Lennie could apply to people living in Britain today. People still have these dreams but in a different way. Nowadays in Britain people dream of big houses and expensive cars. For example, the dream of two immigrants could be for safety happiness and a place to live. This shows that the theme of the hopes and dreams are all for happiness.

 Hopes and dreams is such an important theme in the John Steinback book because it is all based around them. The hopes and dreams of the Americans not onlt apply to them but to the rest of the world to. By this I mean that everyone has the hope and dream of happiness. I believe that it is important to keep a grid on reality, dreams are fine but it’s no good imagining that the impossible might happen. This is because people can be silly when dreaming for things when really they will never live them dreams.