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

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

Dreams can be that one thing that keeps us alive. The hope of that dream becoming real makes us feel like a big stable mountain which cannot break. Will, courage and hard work are all elements which can improve your life, just like the American dream. In John Steinbeck’s short novel, “Of Mice And Men” published in 1937, he describes how two men is chasing the American dream by believing that they can achieve their goals.

In the story we see how two men, George and Lennie, desperately are trying to chase the American dream. We get an introduction of George and Lennie, and we quickly find out that George is the brain and Lennie is the strength. We are also aware of the reason why they left their work in the weed, which is
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For instance Curly’s wife, before she dies she says that her biggest desire is to be a movie star. There is also a character like old Candy. He offers all his money and his inheritance to George so he can join their dream. Then we have the character like poor Crook. Crook is the black one on the ranch and his awareness of that fact shines through when he offers George to do the dirty work on the farm, just like doing the dishes. While all these dreams, sacrifices and ideas are being presented they all began to wonder. “They fell into a silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true.” (P. 63. L. 13 - …show more content…
"I remember about the rabbits, George. The hell with the rabbits. That’s all you can ever remember is them rabbits." (P.4, 5 l. 32-1)

This is the place where we first hear about the dream of theirs. It seems like Lennie is more dedicated to this dream than George is. The fact that George says “them rabbits” gives the impression of what he really thinks of the dream, that it might be kind of foolish.

Rabbits are often mentioned in the novel because they represent Lennie’s dream. This is noticed every time Lennie wants George to tell about their dream. To George, the farm, the eggs, the vegetables etc. are all dreams and happiness, but to Lennie happiness is having access to the rabbits. So Lennie is very eager about the rabbits, but he also has a habit of hurting the animals that he pets. Deep down, he knows that he is hurting them because he sees and hears this enormous, creepy and cruel rabbit, in the end of the story. This hallucination is his own mind speaking to him; his dream will never come true. Rabbits never actually emerge in the novel, but though they fill a great part. This really makes it clear to us, that Lennie’s dream will never come

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