George and Lennie are two characters in the novel that stick by each other. They are migrant workers that have to travel to find labour. They are examples of characters that are attached to their dreams and are determined to make them become a reality.
George and Lennie both see the same dream; however Lennie is only concerned about one thing. As he has a love for all soft objects, he would like to “tend the rabbits” on their own ranch. Nevertheless, George has to think this through as he is what some people would say, the brains of the operation. He has to think about how they are going to support themselves on the ranch. The reason for this is, George is the “clever” partner of the two. Conversely, Lennie is physically a stronger and bigger person in comparison to George. He is used to heavy work and can do a lot more physical labour than the average man.
George is a character that looks after Lennie as he is mentally weak. They have built up a love for each other that has made their friendship as tight as a box. Lennie looks at the same dream from a different prospective. He sees himself “tending rabbits” but George has many more responsibilities than just to tend rabbits. To make the dream come true, George tells Lennie he must listen to everything that he tells him. To encourage this and to make things easier for George, he says “ specially if you remember as good as that” when Lennie remembers not to say a word when they go to the ranch the next day.
Having a mental disability, Lennie does not have an adult mind. He can only think like a child, therefore when George says that they are going to get the land, he believes this completely. Therefore I think that in the eyes of Lennie, as he cannot see reality and life as it really appears, the dream is more vivid and to George, who can see the truth, that it is going to take much hard work and time to get to their dream, it is not so vivid, as he knows it will be hard work to achieve what they have come out to achieve.
"George, how long is it gonna be till we get that little place an´ live on the fatta the lan´ - an´ rabbits?" this quote shows that Lennie has complete faith in George and that he thinks they are definitely going to fulfil this breathtaking dream.
Lennie says “Come on, George. Tell me. Please, George. Like you done before” this shows that Lennie is committed to make their dreams come true. It also shows that he is enthusiastic about the whole idea.
The dream that Lennie and George saw is just a vision. George did not see it coming true for the near future, no matter what he told Lennie. However this all changed because of another character who saw the same dream. This is Candy. He says “I’d make a will an’ leave my share to you guys in case I kick off” this shows that he wanted to be part of their dream as he could not fulfil it on his own. It also shows generosity in his character, as he would like to see others fulfil a dream at the same time as him. He says that he has nobody or nothing to leave his money or possessions to. He is almost put under this isolated state by Carlson, when he shot his only friend, his dog. As the story progresses, Lennie kills Curley's wife by his foolish but innocent actions. This demolishes the reality of the dream for Lennie, Candy and George to come true. Candy’s hopes that were rebuilt, all fell to the ground and is back to being a lonely man with just a dream:
"Somethin’ he could live on and there couldn’t nobody through him off it”
This shows that Candy also has a dream to own his own land one day, where he could abide by his own rules and do as he pleased.
Crooks who is described as “crippled” also has seen the same visualisation for the future.
"I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land,”
As mentioned previously, his dream is also destroyed because of Lennie’s foolish actions.
Near the beginning of the novel we are told that the two characters have left a place called Weed. The reason being, Lennie has caused some trouble, thus they are both moving to another place to find another job. This doubts them satisfying their longing dreams. Lennie’s passion towards soft objects is acting like a wall as this obsession is keeping them from living their dream. After Lennie gets in trouble at the ranch for killing Curley’s wife, he ruins the chances of the dreams from coming true for himself as well as George. He had become just like Crooks. They were both lonely and had nobody to care or love for them.
As George is getting ready to perform the murder that will save Lennie much pain in the future, he tries to make Lennie happy. He says “look acrost the river, Lennie, an’ I’ll tell you so you can almost see it.” He tells him how it is going to be when they get their dream. He does this so that he can have a quick and easy death.
Curley’s wife also has a dream. She dreams to act in a film, in Hollywood. As the person that told her did not call, she had no choice but to marry Curley and her dreams were also destroyed. He destroyed her dreams as he treated her like a dog, as he always kept her on a tight leash. By this phrase I mean that she is not allowed to do much, without the approval of Curley.
To conclude, it is prominent that dreams play a major role in the novel. None of the characters dreams did ever come true, although most characters dream large. The main dream is of Lennie and George, of getting a farm of their own, which is also crushed. Lennie crushed his own dream as well as George, Candy and Curley’s wife. However it is evident that the characters tried to make their dreams become a reality, yet ended up not having a dream but crushed hopes…
