That shows us that George and Lennie have a dream or call it a “Fantasy” about being away from it all and relaxing on their own ranch were they make the rules”
Yet another character that has a dream or an ambition is Curley’s wife:
“Cuda been in the movies an had nice clothes like they wear an I cuda sat in one of them big hotels and had pitures took of me”
Curley’s wife has a dream that she could have been in the movies and she actually thinks she has the ability to be in the movies as well.
George, Lennie and Curley’s wife are not the only characters that have dreams in “Of Mice and Men” Crooks has them as well. He probably has these dreams because he is coloured and at that time in the 1920’s there was a lot of racial tension. So he probably wishes he could just get on with people like a normal white man would.
“If you … Guys would want a hand to work for nothing, why I would come and lend a hand.
This shows that Crooks is quite desperate to lead a normal life and he would do anything to not to be judged by his skin colour.
Dreams are not the only thing that many of the characters in “Of Mice and Men” have in common as most of them are lonely as well. This is probably for the same reason that they have a dreams; the fact that living at the ranch means leaving your family and friends. I would say that loneliness is one of the main themes throughout the novel and I also think that Crooks is defiantly the loneliest. He is a “Negro stable buck” and the only reason he does not get beaten up is because the ranch the hands are not aloud to use their feet to fight because Crooks has a bad back.
“I aint wanted”
“I can’t play because I am black”
Those quotes show that Crooks is feeling lonely and un-wanted and that he was treating equally.
Another character that’s lonely in “Of Mice and Men” is Curley’s wife. Her loneliness stems from her being in an unhappy marriage and because she is the only woman on ranch full of men at a time of sexual equality.
“I get lonely” She said “You can talk to people but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad, how’d you like it not to talk to anybody?”
Curleys is also adding to his wives loneliness by not letting her talk to anyone so she feels very isolated.
All the characters that have dreams are lonely as well, this is probably because when your lonely and have nothing to do you think about things you could be doing if you’d thought harder about what you wanted to do. But disappointingly dreams rarely become reality and this is what happens in “Of Mice and Men” when George shoots Lennie the dreams they were both heading for faded away. This shows us that even if things look like there going to be ok they can quite often turn out badly and it’s normally just by a stupid careless mistake.
Overall I think that “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is excellent. It has a very clever story line but is easy to understand. I also got a feeling of what it would be like to live in 1920’s America and how lonely and desperate people get. Im glad that times have changed since then and it’s become easier to get a steady job and that there is little racial and sexual tension now. The only bad thing I can say about “Of Mice and Men” is to short and sudden. Other than that its an excellent read.
