Theme Of The American Dream In Of Mice And Men

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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

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