The Role of Hopes and Dreams in Of Mice and Men, a Novel by John Steinbeck

Hopes and dreams help men and women to survive, even if they never ever become genuine. How accurate is this for the characters of Mice and Men.

Steinbeck wrote the book of Mice and Guys in 1937, following the Great Depression of the United States of America. When the Wall Street stock market crashed in October 1929, the planet economy suffered enormously. By 1932, America was experiencing the greatest economic depression in history. Many of the themes that are dealt with in the book reflect what individuals have been experiencing at this time. America’s citizens became unemployed and enormous numbers lived in poverty. Debt and homelessness was also quite widespread during this period as individuals had to travel about America in order to uncover operate. For that reason, in order for individuals to survive in the course of this grim time several members of America’s society decided to believe and produce their own American dream.

During the 1930’s, the concept of the American Dream was primarily based on the Declaration of Independence. The phrase was 1st introduced by James Truslow Adams and essentially consisted of the thought that everyone need to have an equal chance to live a greater and far more prosperous life. The hopes and aspirations that are established as a outcome of the American Dream and the difficulties for characters to acquire their desires is a central theme throughout the novel. Steinbeck introduces this theme in the really very first chapter of the book by means of the use of George and Lennie displaying their ambition to own a farm and make their own livelihood. “Ok. Someday – we’re gonna get the jack with each other and we’re gonna have a tiny house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and …” “An’ live of the fatta the lan’, Lennie shouted” The quotation above implies the two characters often share this same story as Lennie is capable to finish George’s sentence. The pair have some hope as they know that they’ll never ever be lonely for the duration of the time that they continue to travel around America searching for operate with each other. In addition, by repeating the dream, the pair lift themselves out of their dismal predicament as evidenced by how exited they both turn into as they begin to speak about the dream. To George, the dream of the farm signifies the fact that he wishes to develop safety and independence but most importantly ‘being somebody’ via owning their personal land. To Lennie, his hopes are for security and companionship with George exactly where he can look after his rabbits and pet his soft animals which brings him some duty as properly as security.

Steinbeck creates the character Candy in order to portray the bitter treatment that the elderly endured in the course of 1930’s America Similarly to George and Lennie, Candy’s American Dream is to personal a plot of land and make his personal livelihood. Moreover, Candy is disabled having lost his proper hand in a farm accident and is reduced to the worst job on the ranch which is a ‘swamper’, meaning cleaner. In spite of this, Steinbeck utilizes the character to represent hope in the novel as it is Candy who delivers his savings to George and Lennie in order to join them in producing their dream a reality. Soon after planning in detail what the farm would appear like and where it would be, Steinbeck writes ‘Lennie and Candy nodded, and they had been grinning with delight’ in order to emphasize how uplifting speaking about the dream is to the three. Regardless of the feeling of hope that Steinbeck creates in chapter 3 exactly where the men plot their promising future the author contains numerous dark images and events throughout the chapter in order to introduce the sense of foreboding that Lennie, George and Candy’s dream could be defeated. This can be exemplified in the third chapter of the novel as Lennie brutally crushes Curley’s hand and Carlson mercilessly shoots Candy’s ageing dog which further highlights the lack of respect and care felt towards the elderly in the course of this period. To Candy, the dream of the farm provides him security in his old age as he has control more than his work and location of death.

In contrast to these characters, Steinbeck creates Crooks in order to bring a sense of reality to the novel. Crooks is a black, ageing man who is disabled due to a kick from a horse. At first, Steinbeck portrays Crook’s dream as becoming able to return to his childhood as his loved ones was financially steady and owned a plot of land that integrated chickens. ‘My old man had a chicken ranch, ‘bout ten acres.’ Nonetheless, Crook’s dissuades himself from getting able to return to such a life on the biases of his colour and disability. Racial discrimination was not illegal in 1930s America, consequently racism was nonetheless extremely common at the time. Whites and blacks have been segregated in 1930s America and blacks had been regarded as 2nd class citizens. In addition, Men and women who had disabilities in 1930s America were treated quite unsympathetically by the majority of society. Abnormal behavior and low levels of financial productivity was regarded as a burden to communities. As a outcome of this, Crooks by no means believes that society will ever accept him. Crooks describes how he has seen hundreds of ranch workers with the identical dream but has never ever witnessed anyone succeed in perusing their ambitions. ‘Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a small piece of land…. No one never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head’. Crook’s speech foreshadows the failure of the other characters dreams by bringing the reader back to the harsh reality of 1930’s America which was poverty and mass unemployment.

Steinbeck additional expands the notion that hopes and dreams helped individuals to survive via the dreadful depression of the 1930’s by way of the use of Curley’s wife. The author does this by portraying her to be an incredibly lonely character. The reader recognizes this as she is married to a man who she does not really like and is cruelly neglected by her husband. Furthermore, there are no other women on the ranch which means she has practically nothing to do and is unable to really feel companionship. As a result of this, she tries to make buddies with the ranch workers by lingering around the bunkhouse. Even so, her dream of stardom by means of becoming a glorious and famous actress in Hollywood permits her to forget about her loneliness as she hopes and fantasizes that a single day she’ll grow to be the most talented and beautiful actress in America. Curley’s wife believes that due to the fact of her stardom, everyone and anyone will be desiring a moment in her firm, meaning that she’ll no longer be lonely and rather feel appreciated. Despite this, her dream of fame reinforces her feelings of separation as she yearning to interact with the globe about her and wishes individuals to adore her abilities and elegance. In her eyes, her loneliness would decrease if somebody would only recognize her talents and shape her into a film star. Steinbeck informs the reader that Curley’s wife nearly achieved her dream as her hopes were risen by a man who claimed he would take her to Hollywood. “I lived right in Salinas,” she said. “Come there when I was a kid. Nicely, a show come via, an’ I met 1 of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’ let me. She says since I was on’y fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet.” Nonetheless, as her mother forbid her from perusing her dream she was forced to marry Curly instead. As a result of this expertise, Curley’s wife is aware that her dream is attainable to accomplish. Perhaps she thinks that n opportunity like this could appear once more in her future. I think that it is this thought that enables her to survive through her empty life and prevents her from becoming insane or extremely depressed.

Be that as it might, the harsh truth is that getting a dream and sharing it with other folks is not adequate to make sure survival in Steinbeck’s novel. In fact, some could argue that it was the characters hopes and dreams eventually brought on their deaths. It was Curley’s wife’s need for interest that caused her to be alone with Lennie and ultimately leads to her murder. Furthermore, it is Lennie’s eagerness to peruse his dream that brings him to kill Curley’s wife as he is immensely afraid that Curley’s wife’s shouting would imply to George that she is mad with him. He believed that her anger meant that George wouldn’t permit him to be component of their dream anymore. Lennie’s passion towards his dream meant that George had to kill him as his future consisted of a life of misery in a prison or an asylum as a outcome of his terrible actions.