Comparing The American Dream In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Although most dreams die, Gail Devers once said, “Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication.” In the novella Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie struggled to achieve their dreams. They acquired new jobs at a ranch where they met several people who were also in the process of achieving their dreams or had already failed to do so. Having a dream has negatively impacted all of the characters’ lives. Lennie ended up dying, Curley’s wife was unhappy, and Candy was devastated. By ending the story the way he did, Steinbeck commented on how it is nearly impossible to achieve the American dream because the fulfillment of a person’s dreams almost always rely on …show more content…
Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages. . .” (14). His emphasis, shown by italics, and his reiteration of rabbits displayed how important they were to him and how much he yearned to tend them. It soon became Lennie’s only focus because George said that if Lennie gets into trouble, George will not allow him to look after the bunnies (16). Because being able to do so was important to him, Lennie took extreme measures to get himself out of trouble later on in the story. Whenever Lennie was in trouble, he started experiencing distress. In one instance when he got into a fight with Curley, he worried about whether or not he would still be able to care for the rabbits and asks, “I can still tend the rabbits, George?” (65). Even though he suffered multiple blows from Curley, all he could think about was if George will let him see to the rabbits. By caring more about his dream than his well-being, Lennie demonstrated how fixated his dream has made him. Later, Lennie accidentally killed a puppy, became mad, and asks the dead puppy, “God damn you. Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little
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