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

Many of the characters in Of Mice and manpower take in day inhalations. What argon their breathing ins and how near atomic number 18 any of them to achieving what they want?Of Mice and Men, write by John Steinbeck is a folkic novel set in a gap t throw in Salinas Valley, California. The novel black-and-bluethorn impart been set here as a result of most of Steinbecks childhood being spent on his fathers farmland. His descriptions of the backing go forth invite been aided by his first hand dwell of the ranches of the ara. The novel itself docu workforcets the lives of Lennie Small and George Milton. With Lennie being mentally challenged he has the psychological capabilities of a five year old. This means he has to be cared for by George because he acts childish and irresponsibly. For this reason, he often causes commotion within the ranch he is engagementing. On many a nonher(prenominal) occasions disruption has occurred and occurs, George and Lennie are agonistic to give way their current ranch and start again at a naked as a jaybird wiz.As they are always moving around, they neer have a secure job and are always staying in temporary accommodation. With severally time they move to a different ranch they fantasy more than and more of having their own piece of land where they burn be their own bosses and live off the crops they grow. This is shown by this quote, and we can live off the fatta the lan give tongue to by George. This is sole(prenominal) one of the many breathing ins that feature in Of Mice and Men, however non one of the dreams featured in this novel are progress tod. This reflected the harsh reality of the Great Depression and the racial prejudice in society 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 other parts of the world looking for work as the States was seen as the Land of Opportunity. This glance of hope inspire d many Europeans to emigrate as Europe, at the time, was overcrowded and complaint liberateden. the States was considerd to provide cheap land and no rigid class structure existed. These characteristics gave Europeans the chance of a completely different way of tone to what they were use to.In 1929, America entered a prolonged period of economical deprivation due to the collapse of the New York stock exchange, The Wall channel Crash. Following The Wall Street Crash, many Americans who had invested swell deals of money into stocks and shares mazed almost all of their investments. In few cases, nation would have lost their houses 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 dashed by this tragic nonethelesst. America was certainly non the Land of Opportunity.George and Lennie travelled from ranch to ranch together. This was unusual as most ranch workers would only usually work at one ranch for no longer than a calendar month or two. They would literally not have the time for friendship. This was one of the reasons that the fairish workers dream was for some shape of companionship. The position that George and Lennie had travelled together so long is significant 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 carry many possessions and so had nothing to show for their years of working. They would work and work simply not really achieve much. They would spend the money they earned and therefore earn some more and repeat. This is illustrated in the quote, ..work up a situation and blow the stake. A dream would be historic 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 antecedently 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 says, 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 pass away excited when the dream is recalled. They swear, Well that say the hell with deprivation to work , animating their eagerness to perpetrate their dream.George and Lennies dream even offtually 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 supposition that he is making Georges life miserable. George says, Course Lennies a God da mn nuisance most of the time, however you get used to goin around with a qat an you cant get rid of him George is being held back by Lennie as they are constantly forced to change jobs, 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 save up the money to achieve the dream.Lennie has limited social skills and so does not know how to move with people. Instead, he finds comfort in touching things and is to a fault tactile. This causes trouble as Lennie often touches womens clothes and is misunderstood and seen to be abusive. For this reason, George has to mention a constant eye on Lennie.When confect makes the proposal of entering their dream in exchange for three hundred dollars, George suddenly sees some happening 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 s o that he could spread over bringing hope to Lennie. I think that sub-consciously he always knew that the dream would never be a reality. With edulcorates financial input, the dream could realistically be achieved within the month. However, an abrupt end to their hopes arrives. Lennie, in his simple-minded way, cannot conceive of the line where stroking stops and hurting begins in wrong of petting, and he ends up accidently killing two animals by petting them violently. intimately horrifically, at the climax of the story, he kills Curlys wife in the same way.The fact that he killed her was the final blow to the dream. I think I knowed from the truly 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 tweakhearted and shot on site. George, who is forced to gist the manhunt for Lennie, decides that the kindest way out for both him and Lennie is to kill him when he finds him. He does this by lu ring Lennie into a false state of trust by reciting their dream to him one last time. This sends Lennie off 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 become a Hollywood actress. She was convinced of this as when she was younger she acquainted herself with a Hollywood conductor who deemed her suitable to be an actress in the movies. This is shown in a quote interpreted 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 receive a letter from him explaining where to meet to develop her acting career. Her explanation of why she didnt become an actress is idealistic at best. She believed that her mother stole that letter. However, this is an optimistic proficientification.It just so happe ns that shortly after Curleys wife was given the hope of bonnie an actress, she met Curley. When she realised that her dream of bonny 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 adult female 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 easy 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 marry him in the first place.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 passing lonely. At any chance she can she will speak to someone. 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 awful lonely. This shows that she craves friendship. She is often prize on the men just looking for someone to talk to. She justifies this by saying 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 respect by most of the men on the ranch. She also has the dream to be clayey-boiled as equal to the men on the ranch.This is similar to Crooks dream. He just wants to be received by everyone else on the ranch. However, both Crooks and Curleys wife have similar dreams which would forgo you to think tha t they would sympathise with each other. The reality is quite opposite. Curleys wife approaches Crooks in an aggressive manor and speaks to him in a demoralising way. She says, wholesome you keep 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 point 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 distract against Crooks as much as most. This is the reason that he would feel comfy living in a house with them.Candy, when he enters the dream, provid es 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 comfort 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 palpate that feeling 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 aspire for and a light at the end of the tunnel. I believe Steinbeck is trying to make a point by inc luding 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 throttlehold 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.