Dreams and a desire to escape, shape Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. George and Lennie together plan to end up one day, with a house and a lawn, their own piece of land where they can tend happily to their own things. “Someday, we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house an’ a couple of acres, an’ a cow, an’ a pig…” This proves that George and Lennie want to have their own land away from everybody else, just together, happy and being their own boss. They both strive to escape being a migrant worker, with harsh labour, they want to settle somewhere nice and calm, a place somewhat opposite the ‘ranch’. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys get in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us. This proves that yes he and Lennie know that their dream is just the same as many migrant workers, but George states that he and Lennie different to them, and the difference is that they are going to make their fantasy their reality. Dreams and a desire to escape shape Steinbeck’s novel.
Hopes for a better life and a yearning to break free, underpin Steinbeck’s work Of Mice and Men. Curly’s wife is a troubled woman longing to be an actress and live the relaxing life of a movie star. “If I’d went, I wouldn’t be living like this, you bet.” She has the urge to escape the chains from Curly and his marriage, and most of all, the loneliness of the ranch. “I get awful lonely.” This proves that she wants more than what she’s getting. She is becoming increasingly lonely as much as she is becoming arrogant, believing that she has the looks and potential to be famous. The hopes for a better life and a yearning to break free, underpin Steinbeck’s work.
Fantasies and wanting freedom create Steinbeck’s text Of Mice and Men. Crooks yearns to live a peaceful life, away from racist white men and to have his rights. “If you guys would want a hand to work for nothing, just his keep, why I’d come and lend a hand. I aint working like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to.” He wants to escape the racism and prejudice held against him. He wants to have a happy farming life and be treated as an equal like the old days, back when his father was a land owner. “The white boys would come and play with me, when my dad had his own land”. Here he is remembering the days when the colour of his skin did not effect the way people would judge him and that everybody was just the same, as long as he also has a heart beating inside his chest he should be treated equally no matter how badly disabled he is or for the colour of his skin. Nobody should be given the right to look down on him. Fantasies and wanting freedom create Steinbeck’s text.
Plans and wishing to break free build Steinbeck’s story Of Mice and Men. Candy feels the grasping hands of “old age” clutching tighter around him and all he can do is let himself suffocate hopelessly. He feels that everybody looks at him as the ‘old guy with no feelings’. He thinks he has to find a place to rest and stay at before everybody rots him away (before he dies). “You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn’t no good to himself, nor nobody else. When they can me here I wish’t somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t do nothing like that. I won’t have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs. Here he states that he knows he is getting old and that he knows everybody on the ranch is realising that also. He expects that he will soon be sacked and he won’t have anywhere to go except his grave. He said that he wishes that he could experience ‘life as it should be if you work hard enough’. He wants somewhere to belong to, before it’s too late. “tell you what, s’pose I went in with you guys?” This proves that he wants to escape the men of the ranch, the work and of course migrant labour. He wants to adapt to working little jobs like tending to the tomatoes or even cleaning the dishes. He is trying to say his working days are over, and that he needs to be set free into his own world.
Dreams and a craving to want free will and liberation, construct Steinbeck’s story Of Mice and Men. The way this tale is set reminds me of ‘The Search for The Holy Grail’ as if the characters all long and sought for their pleasure but it has never been accomplished or processed. Dreaming and yearning for happiness is so easy yet being able to make ‘your dream come true’ is known to be impossible. Lennie dreams of responsibility (tending the rabbits). George dreams of freedom from migrant labour and having his own land. Crooks dreams of self respect and Curly’s wife is looking to make something of herself, although none of these hopes are ever to be fulfilled. I conclude that Dreams and a craving to want free will and liberation, construct Steinbeck’s novel and that he is really reflecting on how petty today’s world really is.
