Of Mice and Men: Compare 'The American Dream' with the real lives of the migrant workers Of Mice and Men (OMaM) was first published in 1937

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Aaron Lavin                Mr. Coals

Of Mice and Men: Compare ‘The American Dream’ with the real lives of the migrant workers

Of Mice and Men (OMaM) was first published in 1937 and is written by John Steinbeck. It is based on America in the 1930’s. It is a story about the extraordinary friendship between two itinerant workers in the harsh American depression during the 1930’s.

The title of the novel is named after a poem written by Burns. The title shows how many living things are often powerless to face greater forces than they are. The title is a constant reminder that failure is often inescapable and dreams are not fulfiled as we build up our hopes so high picturing these and when everything collapses, we have nothing to fall back on. This is shown with George in the novel as, with the death of Lennie, all of his original dreams fall away.

The American dream is the notion that:

everyone is created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

The novel focuses on two workers called Lennie and George who are looking for work and find it in a typical American ranch full of fellow itinerant workers. The ‘American Dream’ is present in the story and at the time, it was felt, and promised by president Hoover, that a man or woman from anywhere could achieve anything, however, the weaknesses of the dream itself are highlighted in the novel. Despite this, there was still racial segregation in society and this is also demonstrated in the story with a character called Crooks. He is insulted constantly and is called “nigger” throughout by the other people on the ranch.

During the Wall Street crash in 1929, the great depression swept all through America and Steinbeck highlights this throughout the novel. The lifestyle of the itinerants is an example of this as they just go to the “cathouse” and spend all of their earnings as soon as they have it. This symbolizes the lack of hope in the American dream from the ranch workers as, they just carelessly spend their money as soon as they receive this instead of saving it for the future.      

The novel starts with a detailed description of the surroundings. The writing suggests that Soledad is dream-like with very dry but lush conditions.

“the water is lined with trees-willows fresh and green with every spring”

Although this sounds very heavenly, the word Soledad means ‘loneliness’ in Spanish however this contrasts with the happiness of family life (“a path beaten hard by boys coming down from the ranches to swim in the deep pools”) which would be characteristic of the “American dream’.

When Lennie and George enter, it is obvious that they are both completely different and “opposite”. The reader has the impression that Lennie is quite animal-like as throughout the novel he is described with animal phases 

“the way a bear drags him paws” and with ‘clumsy’ language like “huge”, ”flung” and “snorting”.

Despite this clear contrast, the pair still share everything together, “bought out two spoons and passed one to Lennie” – referring to George which highlights the concept of the American dream and the search for happiness.

 

From the beginning, the reader is aware of George and Lennie’s dream and living “off the fatta the lan’”. For the pair, the dream is still very much alive and is repeated over and over until, towards the end, it becomes very monotonous and it becomes a burden to George. George has his own dreams but the dream with Lennie is the only one which is truly idyllic because it’s impossible.

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The ranch owners manipulated desperate workers like George and Lennie so, like George and Lennie, quite a lot of ranch workers have dreams like Candy for example “I’d make a will an’ leave it with you guys….”

Unlike the other workers, who have got into a routine of earning their money then spending it straight away with no hope of achieving anything, Lennie and George dream of a better life as they don’t want to keep working on ranches until they die. It keeps George and Lennie going through the tough times and as they tell more ...

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