Everybody has their dreams and hopes but this is just a gap or an illusion. Whether it will come true or not, it depends.
When you have got nothing, all you can do is dream. This need for a dream happened in America during The Great Depression of the 1930s. The American Dream simply means wishing for something that is usually out of people’s grasp. John Steinbeck, the author of “Of Mice and Men” used the American Dream to illustrate to people that this dream is actually blinding individuals from seeing the reality.
George Milton and Lennie Small, the two main characters in this novel have dreams, and these dreams clearly stand as symbols of the American Dream. Lennie is a hugely strong man but his heart and courage is totally opposite. Although he looks like a giant, his boldness is as small as an ant. He does not have any confidence to do things by himself. In his life, all the hard work he did for was a sacrifice to achieve his dream of rabbits.To own rabbits is all Lennie wishes for.
“Tell me George, tell me about the rabbits.” He would be really pleased if it comes true and satisfies his want. He even hallucinates about rabbits when he is talking to George about having rabbits of different colours.
“Let’s have different colour rabbits, George.” George replied, “Red and blue and green rabbits, Lennie. Millions of ’em.” The reason why his dreams did not come true is, firstly, that Lennie is not able to achieve his dream alone.
He needs George by his side. Lennie wants the rabbits for his won comfort He just wants to play with them as friends. However, George is against Lennie’s want because it has been accidents of Lennie killing his pets all along. Lennie did not learn from his mistakes at all.
That is why he will still make the same mistake and he will never change. He stroked Curley’s wife’s hair just to feel the softness of her nice blonde hair but when she got frightened and started screaming, Lennie was so paniced that he pulled her hair and broke her neck. He harms people without any purposes but due to his instinct, Lennie always accidentally killed living things.”Now maybe George ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits, if he fin’s out you got killed” He knows himself that he is guilty. He did not mean to take someone’s life for good. Lastly, this dream would never ever happen simply because Lennie was shot dead. He died before he even started to fulfil his dream. George is Lennie’s closes friend and behaves like a parent to Lennie.
George has a dream of owning a piece of land to live his simple life. “OK, someday we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres and a cow and some pigs and..
.” George wants this ranch because people suffered during that period of time when there was the greatest economic crash in the American history. People who used to have loads of money suddenly dropped to zero and they just had a bag with clothes and accessories without a single cent. All men were offered in some way or other, including George.He has to move from one place to another looking for security and work. Imagine if you have to travel around, sleeping with people whom you are not familiar.
If you are forced to wake up early by someone, what would you feel? Everybody wants their won place called home. It is the place where you have your privacy to relax. What stops him from getting to his dream is because of his jobs.
By working at the ranch alone earning 50 dollars a month, I can guarantee that George will definitely be in the coffin before he has enough money. George relies on his delirious dream rather than facing reality. Ultimately, George lost Lennie so he had no motivation to complete what he wished for. George also knows that he is in the world of reality so he realizes that the door for him to see the light is nearly shut. “I think I knowed from the very first, I think I knowed we’d never do her.He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would” An old, handicapped swamper, Candy, lives in the same ranch as George and Lennie.
He used to have his old, smelly dog to keep him company whenever he was lonely but then it was put to sleep, just as Lennie is put down with a bullet. Candy has quite a similar kind of dream as George. He just wants to be happy, safe and comfortable for the rest of his life because he does not have much time before his soul leaves his body. An anonymous lady, known as Curley’s wife ironically owns the ranch together with Curley but she does not want it for her dream.
She is a young woman who truly believes in her beauty. Her biggest dream is to be a movie star. She wants to be a celebrated woman. “Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes – all of them nice clothes like they wear.An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers took of me.
When they had them previews I coulda went to them, an’ spoke in the radio, an’ it wouldn’t cost me a cent because I was in the pitcher.” She married Curley hoping to escape her dull childhood and achieve her dreams but ultimately, Curley is an obstacle to her. He wanted his wife to be nowhere but home. He imprisoned her.
Curley’s wife’s dream had been shut down since she married Curley but she kept on dreaming. However, if she had not married Curley, she would probably not have achieved her dream, as this is an illusion. Hollywood pulls many hopeful star wannabes but very few achieve success.Curley’s wife loves getting dressed up when she lives on the ranch. Why does she have to dress so nicely when there are just ordinary guys around her? Well, this shows she has no choice. She needs to dress up to comfort herself.
This dressing up is a symbol of her dream. The American Dream is only a dream. A dream which is too far beyond our reach. No mater how hard you put your effort into it, the probability is just as low as if you do nothing. In this case, the characters dreams did not come true.
Maybe some characters like George or Candy did not have the high expectation for it to happen but Lennie and Curley’s wife still wished for it until the very last second of their breath.
