Of Mice and Men and the American Dream Essay Example for Free

Of Mice and Men and the American Dream EssayJohn Stienbecks novel Of Mice and Men is about the death of the American dream. George, Lennie and glaze overs dream is to own their own chip of land to break down and hold up independently on. This dream is destroyed by Lennies ignorance and Lennies strength, which he cannot control. Curleys wifes dream is to be a famous Hollywood actress. Her dream is destroyed by her marriage to Curley and the Hollywood director who promised to tie-in her about her acting career but never has. Crooks dream is for equality. Racism and the attitudes of others destroy this dream.Lennie and Georges dream is to own a piece of land to work and live where they can arouse cows, pigs, chicken a ve allowable patch with alfalfa and rabbits. O. K Someday were waiver to get the jack together and were going to have a little house and a couple of acres and a cow and some pigs and An live off the fatal the land Well have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit-h unch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter well just say the hell with going to work, and well build up the fire in the stove and set around it an listen to the rain coming down on the roof. (Steinbeck 193718)This quote illustrates the dream have about owning their own land and living independently on it, growing and harvesting their own crops in the vegetable patch, farming cows and goats for milk, pigs for ham and bacon and chickens for eggs. When sweeten hears about this dream, he wants to set about part of it by offering his saved money to fund the purchase of the piece of land and be able to work and live on the land with George and Lennie. George, Lennie and candys dream is destroyed by Lennies ignorance and Lennies ignorance of his own strength.When Lennie is in a stressful situation, alike when he wanted to pat the girls dress and she screamed, Lennie panics and doesnt know what to do. Lennies strength and ignorance ruins their dream when Lennie and Curleys wife a re talk in the barn. Curleys wife invites Lennie to feel how soft her hair is. Lennie patted her hair very hard. Curleys wife, not wanting her hair to be messed up, jerks her head away. Because Lennie is disjointed he grabs her hair and tries to make her stop yelling.But because Lennie does not know how to control his own strength, he squeezes Curleys wifes neck similarly hard and crushes her spine. Lennie then flees the bedcover because Curley wants to kill him for what he did to his wife. So Lennie is not brutally murdered by Curley, George finds Lennie and, because he cannot get him out of trouble, shoots Lennie. Lennies unmanageable strength and ignorance destroyed his, George and Candys dream Curleys wifes dream is to become a famous Hollywood actress.She dreams of fame, fortune, fancy tog and large, expensive hotels. Curleys wife is waiting for a Hollywood director to mail her about becoming an actress. This dream is destroyed by her marriage to Curley because erstwhile she is married she is not allowed to pursue an acting career because she has to look after the house, because Curley will not allow her to leave the facing pages to become an actress. Her dream is besides destroyed by a Hollywood director who believed she had the potential to become a film actress.Curleys wife meets this director at a leaping and he promises he would send her a letter about acting in one of his films, but she never gets the letter so she does not become an actress which is her dream. Her marriage to Curley and the Hollywood director who has not mailed her about her acting career destroys her dream. Crooks dream is to be equal. Because he is black, he is treated differently than others because of their racialist attitudes. Crooks must not go in the bunkhouse so he has to sleep in the harness path.He is also abused by the boss of the ranch whenever the boss gets angry. Crooks dreams that he can be treated the same as everyone else, so he does not have to sleep in the harness room instead of the bunkhouse or by abused by another man. And he gave the stable buck hell, too Give the stable buck hell? he asked Sure. Yak see the stable bucks a nigger. (Steinbeck 193722)This quote shows how Crooks is mistreated by the farm boss because he is a black man. The ranch boss thinks he can ill-treat and discriminate against Crooks because he is black.Crooks dream of becoming equal is destroyed by the racist attitudes of others The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about the death of the American dream. The dream of George, Lennie and Candy is to own their own piece of land to work and live on. Lennies ignorance and Lennies irrepressible strength destroy this dream. Curleys wifes dream is to be a famous Hollywood actress. Her dream is destroyed by her marriage to Curley and the Hollywood director who promised to write to her about her acting career but never has. Crooks dream is for equality. This dream is destroyed by racism and the attitudes of others.