There are many themes throughout the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. One of those themes is the American dream. The American Dream has been I thought in everybody’s mind since America was founded and Steinbeck shows each individual dreams of the characters and how they can be achieved. Some characters dreams are naive and unrealistic, others are achievable. Steinbeck’s themes shows that the dreams in the book that are realistic come true, but the ones that aren’t don’t. Curley’s wife’s dream shows Steinbeck’s theme in that her American dream is very unrealistic and it is one of the dreams that don't come true. Curley’s wife has a very vain dream. She wants to become an actress and live in Hollywood. To always have the spotlight on her and live and extravagant lifestyle. Her dream was so unrealistic because she didn’t ever work for it. “Nother time I met this guy, and he was in pitchers. Went out to …show more content…
Lennie had the dream of tending to the rabbits on the farm that he and George dreamt of. Throughout the novel, Lennie kills a lot of things. Lennie doesn’t know his own strength and tending to the rabbits would not be the smartest decision. He kills Curley’s wife while trying to calm her down after touching her dress. “Don’t go yelling. He said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck”(91) Lennie doesn’t know his own strength because it takes a lot of effort to snap somebody neck, and rabbits are so much smaller and weaker than humans are. In the conversation with Curley’s wife Lennie says how he likes to pet soft things. If George and Lennie’s dream came true. Lennie would have probably killed all the rabbits he tried to tend to. Adding another point to Steinbeck’s theme of dreams that can’t come
Lennie constantly fears that his actions will anger George, who will then punish him by taking away his rabbit-managing privileges. During the debacle with Curley's wife, he says “‘George gonna say I done a bad thing. He gonna ain’t gonna me tend no rabbits’”(91). Lennie represents innocence and
At the beginning of the novel he accidently kills a mouse, and then a puppy, and ultimately Curley’s wife. As he said, “I can still tend the rabbits, George?... I didn't mean no harm, George.” (65), he may have not meant to harm anything or anyone but he did not understand or accept the severity of his actions, instead he was concerned about the tending of his future rabbits. Lennie’s actions solidified Steinbeck’s stance on the true nature of mankind through his diction.
36 He was right at the end George did not get the land and Lennie did not tend the rabbits. The reason they left their first job was because Lennie but them in physical danger. Lennie grabbed Curley's wife's hair and shook her, simultaneously breaking her neck and killing her. Lennie ran away to the brush he knew he was in physical danger.
Dreams Lost, Never Found To quote a translation of Robert Burns’s poem, “To a Mouse”, “The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men often go awry and leave us nothing but grief an' pain for promised joy” (Shoomp). This quote well compliments John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, which has a universal theme of dreams being predestined to failure. Among the most prominent examples of unrealized dreams are George and Lennie’s shared dream of owning a farm to call home, Crook’s dream of being accepted as an equal to the other white men, and Curley’s wife’s dream of becoming an actress and making something out of herself. From the very beginning of the novel, George and Lennie share a dream of buying a farm on which they could belong and live harmoniously on.
The American Dream The American dream is the desire of all most all the characters in the novella Of Mice and Men. This is shown in many ways in many kinds of dreams whether it be becoming Rich and famous or just having the means to survive on their own each character has their own American dream. The first example of the american dream would be George 's dream. George wanted nothing more than to own his own farm and survive off of the land with Lennie which is shown in this quote “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 goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof ...”
(Steinbeck, 96) This proves that Curley would stop at nothing to kill Lennie, and he would do it in a brutal and excruciatingly painful manor. George simply shot him in the back of the head, Lennie had no idea it was coming, and therefore was not scared, he had nothing to fear. George told him everything would be okay, that they would get their ranch and he could tend to the rabbits, he did ths to calm Lennie down, and allow him to die
This quote shows that Lennie is incapable of keeping a puppy, nevertheless, rabbits. When it came to the incident with Curley’s wife, that was different. “You stop it now, you’ll mess it all up.” (91). She had invited him to pet her hair, but he started petting it to hard.
Will he be angry? This happens again but with Curley’s wife. She comes in to talk to Lennie and find out he killed the pup. She also finds out how crazy Lennie is about rabbits. He tells her it’s because he likes the feel on soft things.
The death of Curley’s wife is a very shocking event which is what triggers George’s decision to shoot Lennie. She does nothing wrong and without noticing Lennie kills her; just how he killed the mouse and the puppy killed the puppy. Curley’s wife’s death is a tragedy and symbolizes Lennie’s untroubled life coming to an end. Even though Lennie is not a bad person after the death of Curley’s wife, we can no longer think of him as an innocent child-like person. George and Lennie’s life was about survival, but centred on the innocent dream of the rabbits.
He would be able to take a day off and go into town more often, have freedom in his life. Lennie just follows George, he wants to tend the rabbits on George 's farm and live of the fatta the lan '. The Dream of having your own farm and tending rabbits all the time can get old. If you dream about it all the time like Lennie and George, you can barely get your work done for that day.
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.
When Lennie and George get a farm his punishment is not to tend any rabbits. One thing George lost hope to Lennie and killed him is when he was petting Curley 's wife 's hair. When Lennie was petting harder and harder to Curley 's wife 's head, it was hurting Curley 's wife, so Curley 's wife 's natural reaction is to scream. Lennie doesn 't want to get into more trouble because he already killed a puppy before touching Curley 's Wife and he doesn 't want to get into more trouble, he gripped Curley 's wife 's neck and accidentally twisted it, which caused the death of Curley 's wife. George had to kill him because if he doesn 't kill Lennie, Lennie could cause more deaths and
In this episode, Curley’s wife is having a conversation with Lennie about her American Dream of an actress in a desperate attempt to cure her loneliness. She also consolidates Lennie about the death of the puppy. Lennie confesses his desideratum to tend the rabbits because he simply likes to pet nice things. Curley’s wife then makes the big mistake of asking him to stroke her hair, and Lennie being Lennie goes too far, gets scared, and snaps Curley’s wife’s neck,”He shook her then, and he was angry with her… And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.”
However, when Lennie kills Curley’s wife, George pityingly kills Lennie. After Lennie kills her, he feels so awful that he starts hallucinating a giant bunny and his aunt. They tell him how he never does anything right and how he should never tend rabbits. The giant rabbit says, “Tend rabbits, You crazy bastard. You ain’t fit to lick the boots of no rabbit.
“Curley stared levally at him. ’Well next time you answer when spoken to”(26). Lennie and Curley seem to always be getting into fights or arguments. Lennie just wants to live the dream with his soft things. Steinbeck uses events to express that the american dream is impossible.