How Are Dreams Presented in of Mice and Men?
How are dreams presented in Of Mice and Men?
During the 1930’s in America, at the time of the Great Depression, John Steinbeck, an ordinary migrant worker wrote perhaps the shortest but well known novel – Of Mice And Men. I think Steinbeck was influenced by the poem “To A Mouse”, because the novel and poem are slightly alike. They both have dreams and determination but in the end, both are destroyed. In the novel, Steinbeck shows us that dreams are futile. You only have the dream because you are being optimistic and having a dream might make life seem easier for you. But if your dream is destroyed, then life seems difficult and meaningless.
George and Lennie’s dream to own a ranch during the Great Depression seemed like a typical, futile American Dream of the migrant workers. “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to. With us ain’t like that. We got a future.” But the closer Lennie and George came to achieving their dream, everything was suddenly lost – “the beak swallowed the little snake while its’ tail waved frantically”. This sentence shows us that things will suddenly change and the outcome of plans are not going to be what they were expected to be. The setting of the last and first chapters of the novel are exactly the same, but the sentence “the beak swallowed the little snake while its’ tail waved frantically” is seen as a warning by the reader that something unexpected is going to occur. “Suddenly Lennie appeared out of the brush, and he came as silently as a creeping bear moves.” This sentence indicates a change of Lennie’s behavior, which is shown using anthropomorphism, makes us think that something is going to happen and the tension starts to rise because Lennie usually moves and is described as a “calm, big bear”. Lennie’s actions make the reader imagine Lennie as being big, cute, cuddly and harmless – “he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his
During the 1930’s in America, at the time of the Great Depression, John Steinbeck, an ordinary migrant worker wrote perhaps the shortest but well known novel – Of Mice And Men. I think Steinbeck was influenced by the poem “To A Mouse”, because the novel and poem are slightly alike. They both have dreams and determination but in the end, both are destroyed. In the novel, Steinbeck shows us that dreams are futile. You only have the dream because you are being optimistic and having a dream might make life seem easier for you. But if your dream is destroyed, then life seems difficult and meaningless.
George and Lennie’s dream to own a ranch during the Great Depression seemed like a typical, futile American Dream of the migrant workers. “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to. With us ain’t like that. We got a future.” But the closer Lennie and George came to achieving their dream, everything was suddenly lost – “the beak swallowed the little snake while its’ tail waved frantically”. This sentence shows us that things will suddenly change and the outcome of plans are not going to be what they were expected to be. The setting of the last and first chapters of the novel are exactly the same, but the sentence “the beak swallowed the little snake while its’ tail waved frantically” is seen as a warning by the reader that something unexpected is going to occur. “Suddenly Lennie appeared out of the brush, and he came as silently as a creeping bear moves.” This sentence indicates a change of Lennie’s behavior, which is shown using anthropomorphism, makes us think that something is going to happen and the tension starts to rise because Lennie usually moves and is described as a “calm, big bear”. Lennie’s actions make the reader imagine Lennie as being big, cute, cuddly and harmless – “he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his