One of the most significant shifts in Of Mice and Men is that George and Lennie’s dream of owning their own farm from promising to hopeless. Lennie Small is the keeper of the dream of having their own farm and getting to tend rabbits. In his child-like naive, he is convinced that possessing a ranch is in the realm of possibility. He likes to keep asking George to tell him the story about their dream farm and would like to tend his own rabbits for petting. The major problem with Lennie is that he likes petting soft things such as mice and puppy, but they are too weak to withstand his petting so they died very quickly. George and Lennie’s dream also attracts the old swamper Candy’s attention, so he joins their team by contributes his money. However,
In this part of the book Candy proposes, he goes with them and George lets him. John Steinbeck states “Then you an’ Lennie could go get her started an’ I’d get a job an’ make up the rest.” This shows how George is faced with the choice of leaving Candy on the ranch or taking him with them to buy land for a farm. Another example of a difficult choice George makes is when Lennie kills somebody and is being chased by everybody on the ranch; he chooses to give Lennie mercy and kill him there instead of letting everyone on the ranch decide his fate.
Unfortunately, Lennie is indirectly the only person holding back the dreams of George. Going into the ranch the two of them work at, George was already cautious about the kind of behavior Lennie displayed. He emphasized to Lennie to remain in his best behavior so that everything could go as planned. Candy, an elderly man missing a hand devotes all his money to the same dream that George and Lennie have. They were all so close to moving on until Lennie ruined their dreams.
“I remember a lady used to give ‘em to me--ever’ one she get...I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead--because they was so little” (Steinbeck 10) Lennie’s aunt used to give him mice to pet when he was a child, but he always ended up killing them. Lennie and George discuss this as they’re sitting in the clearing and George discovers that Lennie has another dead mouse he is petting in his
In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck utilizes Lennie’s mental disability to demonstrate that his dream of a farm will be a place of acceptance for Lennie. Lennie is not accepted into society due to his mental disorder. When George tells the charming story of the dream, Lennie adds, “An’ rabbits, George” (Steinbeck 3.57). Lennie is insistent on including the rabbits because he is the rabbits.
After they eat dinner, in which Lennie complains about not having ketchup for his beans, and when George gets angry at Lennie, he says that he would be better off without Lennie. The pair go to sleep. And when they wake up George informs Lennie about his dream, in which the two manage to get enough money to buy a small piece of land. In George’s dream the two have a small farm with a vegetable patch, and a rabbit hutch. The rabbit hutch is seemingly
Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it.” (Steinbeck 14) Lennie, who is a big man; that does not know his own strength, wants to be on a farm with his companion, George. He wants the farm to have different things such as a garden, pigs, cows and most of all rabbits. He likes rabbits because they are soft, so he can pet them, but big enough to not get hurt when he pets them.
Dreams are just conceptions of our mind for longing for more out of our selves. The problem of trying to process or make these dreams happen is the fact that we feel that these dreams will become burden upon not just our body, but our mind as well. For many this may be true, but in the case of George Smalls, this is not the case. George’s Dream or main goal is to be able to care of Lennie. This one dream has influenced most of his choices and has actual become a part of him.
Lennie on the other hand is Large, strong, but is mentally slow and cannot seem to fully comprehend all situations. Lennie loves to pet and hold soft things, whether it is a dead mouse, a nice dress, or even a puppy. Lennie also does not know his own strength, and these two characteristics that Lennie possesses makes him a somewhat dangerous man. George and Lennie head to a ranch so they can acquire enough money for their dream job of owning their own ranch, where Lennie can tend to the rabbits, and where no one is the in charge of them. At the farm they met many characters.
In the novel Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, Lennie is a man who is mentally handicapped. With this handicap, Lennie has to rely on George, his friend and caretaker, to help Lennie make sense of situations he doesn’t understand. Lennie is seen in many chapters to be attracted to animals with soft fur. Whether it’s a mouse, a puppy, or the rabbits he plans to own, Lennie has a strong urge to pet soft things. This urge is Lennie’s desire.
Throughout the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the theme of the unrealized dream is displayed through characters such as Lennie, George, Candy, and Curley’s wife. The unrealized dream, also known as the American Dream, is portrayed differently for a few different characters in the book. Best friends George and Lennie have a shared dream which is to have a serene farm ranch, even if it is small, with a mediocre house, a rabbit pen, and a garden where they can grow their own vegetables and herbs. They long to live independently away from rude bosses and harsh ranches. This is seen differently for a character such as Candy who only wants to keep his job even though he is disabled.
Both Lennie and George have a similar idea of what they want for their American dream and that is to someday owning a farm. If they achieve this it would offer protection and financial care. Crooks tells them that they won’t be able to achieve their American dream and this ends up being true for them. Lennie explains their dream and says " 'Well, ' said George, 'we 'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we 'll just say the hell with going ' to work, and we 'll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an ' listen to the rain coming ' down on the roof... '"
Dreams can be very persuasive and uplifting as well as discouraging, in the right moments. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck introduces the readers to a story of dreams and how those dreams can affect you and others. Steinbeck explains through his novel how dreams can give reasons for people to succeed in life, how they can draw others in and encourage others or how dreams can stray away from reality and how the dreamer can get lost in their own fantasies and never accomplish their dreams at all. Dreams have the power to change lives by giving hope.
Ever since Carlson shoots Candy’s ancient dog, Candy lives in gnawing fear for his own usefulness on the ranch. Candy exemplifies the fear of insecurity, yet George and Lennie’s dream manages to extricate him from his distress. Despite a stub for a hand and old age as his fetters, sharing George and Lennie’s dream enables Candy to surmount his fears. Through this interaction, Steinback reveals how dreams empower people to escape their insecurities. Candy grabs onto the dream so tightly because it gives him a glimpse of his life without fear; a life with security.
In the novella Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck incorporates many thematic ideas into his text. He includes the ideas of dreams and reality, the nature of home, and he difference of right and wrong. He develops these ideas throughout the story. The first theme incorporated is the idea if dreams versus reality. Lennie and George have a plan.
Of mice and men is a prominent book read by most high school students for a long time. Of mice and men is a book written by John Steinbeck. In the book George and Lennie had to run out of weed, so they looked for a ranch to work on. Lennie had issues with liking soft things that lead to him killing Curley's’ Wife and a puppy. To express that the american dream is impossible to achieve Steinbeck uses conversations, conflicts, and events.