Of Mice And Men American Dream Essay

In John Steinbeck’s classic novella, Of Mice and Men, the readers are introduced to many characters and are shown how each character has their own idea of the American Dream. The first character we are introduced to in the story, is Lennie Small. Lennie’s life critically depends on the American Dream. His dream was to live on his own land with his best friend George Milton, tend rabbits, and have a pup. While waiting for his American Dream to become a reality, he was working on a farm for Curley and his wife. Curley’s wife’s dream was to be in all the movies and to be rich. Crooks, the only black man working on the farm, had a very simple dream; he did not want to be excluded because of his race, he wanted to be equal to others. However, if the woman nor the black could not receive their dream, what gives Lennie the thought that he could. Steinbeck crafts Lennie’s character, a mentally handicapped man, as an archetype that represents all handicapped and shows how they are excluded from achieving the American Dream. Steinbeck makes it almost virtually impossible for anyone except a perfect white man to achieve the American Dream in the novella.
Throughout the story, everyone explains what they want (their dreams). Lennie is always begging George to tell him about how they are going live on a farm. You can easily tell that Lennie’s life greatly relies on his dreams. ”We’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. When it rains in the winter, we’ll build up