Many of the characters in ‘Of Mice and Men’ have dreams Essay

M some(prenominal) of the characters in Of Mice and Men hand over ambitions. What be their pipe ambitiousnesss and how near are any of them to achieving what they want?Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck is a classic tonic set in a facing pages t testify in Salinas Valley, California. The novel whitethorn have been set here as a result of most of Steinbecks childhood being spent on his fathers farmland. His descriptions of the setting will have been aided by his first hand experience of the spreades of the area. The novel itself docuwork forcets the lives of Lennie teeny and George Milton. With Lennie being mentally challenged he has the psychological capabilities of a five year old. This means he has to be parcel outd for by George because he acts childish and irresponsibly. For this reason, he often causes commotion within the ranch he is disciplineing. On many occasions disruption has occurred and occurs, George and Lennie are forced to leave their current ranch a nd start once again at a new unity.As they are al focussings moving around, they never have a secure traffic and are always staying in temporary accommodation. With each time they move to a different ranch they ideate more and more of having their own piece of land where they tin can be their own bosses and live off the crops they grow. This is shown by this retell, and we can live off the fatta the lan said by George. This is scarcely one of the many dreams that feature in Of Mice and Men, however non one of the dreams featured in this novel are achieved. This reflected the harsh reality of the Great Depression and the racial prejudice in familiarity at the time.Steinbeck set Of Mice and Men during the Great Depression, in the late 1920s and the 1930s. Many migrants came to California, from new(prenominal) parts of the world looking for work as America was seen as the Land of Opportunity. This glimpse of hope inspired many Europeans to emigrate as Europe, at the time, was overcrowded and disease ridden. America was believed to provide twopenny land and no rigid class structure existed. These characteristics gave Europeans the chance of a completely different way of life to what they were used to.In 1929, America entered a prolonged period of economic deprivation due to the collapse of the New York stock exchange, The Wall Street chime in. Following The Wall Street Crash, many Americans who had invested great deals of money into stocks and shares lost almost all of their investments. In some cases, people would have lost their digests and life savings. During The Great Depression, failed businesses and long-term unemployment were of the norm. The hopes of those immigrants, who came to America looking for a new life, were step on it by this tragic even sot. America was certainly not the Land of Opportunity.George and Lennie travelled from ranch to ranch to extendher. This was unusual as most ranch histrions would besides usually work at one ra nch for no longer than a month or two. They would literally not have the time for friendship. This was one of the reasons that the average actors dream was for some multifariousness of companionship. The fact that George and Lennie had travelled together so long is substantive as they lived the dream of so many other workers. It would give them the chance of having an alternative dream, one of owning their own land on which they could live off.When travelling from ranch to ranch workers could not hightail it many possessions and so had nothing to show for their years of working. They would work and work but not really achieve much. They would croak the money they earned and then earn some more and repeat. This is illustrated in the quote, ..work up a back up and blow the stake. A dream would be important as it would give a worker something to work towards instead of working with no real direction in their life.Many of the characters in the novel have dreams. The dream is a form of escape from reality of life. As previously stated, George and Lennies dream is to have a piece of land that they can call their own, tend it, grow crops and raise animals. However, Lennie specifically dreams of caring for rabbits. This shows his immaturity. He states, An have rabbits George is always repeating this dream to Lennie. When he does depict the dream to Lennie, he uses exaggerative language and gets involved in the dream almost as much as Lennie. Both George and Lennie twist excited when the dream is recalled. They swear, Well just say the hell with going to work , animating their eagerness to execute their dream.George and Lennies dream eventually fails. This is for a number of reasons. It is mainly because Lennie is such a burden to George. Because of Lennies mental incapability, he has no idea that he is making Georges life miserable. George says, Course Lennies a God damn nuisance most of the time, but you get used to goin around with a guy an you cant get rid of him George is being held back by Lennie as they are constantly forced to change callings, because of situations the Lennie gets them in to and therefore they cant stay in work long enough to build up any sort of savings. The result of this is that they can not just up the money to achieve the dream.Lennie has limited social skills and so does not know how to act with people. Instead, he finds comfort in touching things and is too tactile. This causes trouble as Lennie often touches womens tog and is misunderstood and seen to be abusive. For this reason, George has to cumber a constant eye on Lennie.When Candy makes the proposal of launching their dream in exchange for three hundred dollars, George suddenly sees some possibility of the dream succeeding. Before, he had merely used the dream as a pacifier for Lennie and had lulled himself into believing that it may happen so that he could continue bringing hope to Lennie. I conceive that sub-consciously he always knew that th e dream would never be a reality. With Candys financial input, the dream could realistically be achieved within the month. However, an penetrative end to their hopes arrives. Lennie, in his childlike way, cannot conceive of the line where stroking stops and hurting begins in call of petting, and he ends up accidently killing two animals by petting them violently. Most horrifically, at the climax of the story, he kills Curlys married woman in the same way.The fact that he killed her was the final blow to the dream. I think I knowed from the actually first. I think I knowed wed never do her, George says as he realizes the dream is inevitable. Lennie was inevitably going to be hunted down and shot on site. George, who is forced to join the manhunt for Lennie, decides that the kindest way out for some(prenominal) him and Lennie is to kill him when he finds him. He does this by luring Lennie into a false state of trust by reciting their dream to him one last time. This sends Lennie o ff into death with his dream in his head. You can argue in some way Lennie has achieved his dream.Curlys wife has a dream common to the period and today. She believes that she has the talent to generate a Hollywood actress. She was convinced of this as when she was younger she acquainted herself with a Hollywood director who deemed her suitable to be an actress in the movies. This is shown in a quote taken from a passage spoken by Curlys wife, An I coulda sat in them big hotels, an had pitchers took of me..An all them nice clothes they wear. Because this guy said I was a natural. This guy told her she would suck in a letter from him explaining where to meet to develop her acting career. Her explanation of why she didnt become an actress is majestic at best. She believed that her mother stole that letter. However, this is an optimistic justification.It just so happens that shortly after Curleys wife was given the hope of becoming an actress, she met Curley. When she realised that her dream of becoming an actress was truly over, she decided to marry Curley. She may have done this as, at the time, it was very difficult for a woman to get a job and live on her own. The main profession of women then was housewife.Most women would marry a modest worker but marrying a rich man who owned a ranch was a bonus. Life would be casual for Curleys wife as she would not have to lift a finger. As there was such discrimination towards women, Curleys wife found herself being ignored by the men on the ranch. She was not paid much attention by Curley and was seen by him as more of a trophy than a wife. These are the main reasons that Curleys wife is not happy. She openly expresses that she does not even love Curley. I dont like Curley. She regrets that she married him in the first broadcast.She was not able to speak to anyone during the day as all of the men were out on the fields working. This causes her to be extremely lonely. At any chance she can she will speak to someon e. When she speaks to Lennie in the barn, she says, Why cant I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get alarming lonely. This shows that she craves friendship. She is often prying on the men just looking for someone to talk to. She justifies this by proverb to Slim Hi, good lookin. Im tryin to find Curley, Slim.The fact that she does not even have a name and is instead referred to as Curleys wife shows her status on the ranch. It shows that she is so insignificant that she is not even deemed important enough to warrant a real name. She is looked down on and shown no compliments by most of the men on the ranch. She also has the dream to be case-hardened as play off to the men on the ranch.This is similar to Crooks dream. He just wants to be authoritative by everyone else on the ranch. However, both Crooks and Curleys wife have similar dreams which would lead you to think that they would sympathise with each other. The reality is quite a opposite. Curleys wife approach es Crooks in an aggressive manor and speaks to him in a demoralising way. She says, Well you grasp your place, then Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it aint even funny She perhaps speaks to Crooks with no respect as he is the only person on the ranch over whom she has a higher status.Crooks and Candy try to enter George and Lennies dream. They both do this for their own reasons. Candy is worried about his future on the ranch. He believes that is nearing the microscope stage of becoming useless to the ranch owner. He needs some security so that when he does become of no use, he can settle down somewhere. Crooks feels socially isolated and needs to go somewhere that he will be treated as an equal. George, Lennie and Candy do not discriminate against Crooks as much as most. This is the reason that he would feel comfortable living in a house with them.Candy, when he enters the dream, provides financial power. He has three hundred dollars that he is willing to invest in the dream. When he first tries to join the dream, George responds in a negative and coy way. He says You know a place like that? Candy Spose I do? Whats that to you? George. However, when George considers Candys proposition, he starts to think that the dream may actually become a reality. Candy is afraid that if he does not get somewhere that he can retire to, he may have no one to care for him. Eventually he will be seen of no use and disposed of, much like his dog.Crooks joins the dream as he feels he needs a shelter from society, somewhere that he is accepted for the person that he is and not judged by his skin colour or his disability. Crooks has no status and is treated with no respect on the ranch. He is frustrated with all of the racism directed towards him. He says, If I say something, why, its just a nigger saying itCrooks had a taste of equality when he was a child. He was accepted by white children and has perhaps not accepted the fact that he is now a social outcast. He says, The white kids come to play at our place, an sometimes I went to play with them, and some of them was pretty nice He remembers what it was like to be an equal and wants to experience that disembodied spirit again. This is one of the reasons the Crooks joins the dream.Candy will soon be too old and frail to keep his job at the ranch. The fact that he only has one hand means that his job opportunities are very limited. He, much like Crooks, has no one in his life. He just watches workers come and go from the ranch. He would have somewhere to belong if he joined the dream. This is a very important psychologically as having a place to call home can give Candy a reason to carry on living.All of these characters have dreams and their dreams are important to them. They all give their character some sort of goal to aim for and a light at the end of the tunnel. I believe Steinbeck is essay to make a point by including all of these dreams. I think he is trying to say that without dreams, we are all lost in our lives. We all need some sort of dream to keep us motivated. I think the novel was written to show the stranglehold that the Great Depression had on America in the 1930s. It also shows how hard the life of an itinerant worker was. Of Mice and Men was very a descriptive and informative book. It made me realise that dreams, however small or big, are vital in life.