John Steinbeck highlights the theme of hope in his novel Of Mice and Men to show how difficult it was to keep hope during the Great Depression. This is shown through four characters, Lennie, George, Crooks and Candy. During most of the book, George and Lennie have hope for getting some land. Lennie always wants to talk about it, always trying to squeeze it into conversation. He is always making George tell the story, always making George repeat himself. “We gonna get a little place. We’ll have a cow an’ we’ll have maybe a pig and chickens...an’ down the flat we’ll have a little piece of alfalfa…” (Steinbeck, 1937, p. 105). He is constantly cheering on himself and George about getting that plot of land, making sure they both keep hope through the tough times. …show more content…
They are hopeful and excited when they talk about it but Crooks is only negative about it. He picks on Lennie for having the dream and makes him upset, being bitter. He said that he has “seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches...an’ every damn one of em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it.” (Steinbeck, 1937, p. 74). He also said that people like himself don’t get happiness or anything in life, showing his painful loss of hope. Another example of someone struggling with hope is Candy. He was told about the dream and immediately wanted to be apart of it, offering to help George and Lennie with it. He was so excited for it, always talking about it and making sure they can achieve the dream. When Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s Wife, however, he tries to remain hopeful. He asks George if they are still going to achieve the dream, asking if they can still try. George never answered, leaving Candy alone with Curley’s Wife’s body. Candy slowly processed what was going on, crying as he finally lost his
While reading the stories “Of Mice and Men” and the poem “To a Mouse” the audience can infer that both stories have to do with hope for a better future. While Lennie and George live on the ranch there
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a novel about loneliness and the American Dream. This book takes place during the Great Depression. It was very difficult for people to survive during this time period. A lot of people hardly survived let alone had the necessities they needed to keep relationships healthy. Of Mice of Men has a common theme of disappointment. All the characters struggle with their unaccomplished dreams. The migrant workers, stable buck, swamper, and the other men on the ranch had an unsettled disappointment of where they were at in their lives. George and Lennie, two newcomers to the ranch, aren’t like the other guys. They have each other and they are the not loneliest people in the world. Lennie has a dream though he wants to own a farm with plenty of crops and animals one day. The only problem is his blind curiosity of people and things around him. George wasn’t justified for killing Lennie because Lennie was innocent and never got the chance to find out what he did wrong.
Steinbeck uses foreshadowing throughout the story that hints on them not achieving their dream. Crooks one of the workers, predicts that Lennie and George will never get their own farm. Also, George looses hope and stops talking about the dream. As Crooks and Lennie discuss the plan to get a farm, crooks docent think that Georges and Lennies dream will become possible.’‘I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, …’em has a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever get it…” In other words Crooks has seen many people with the same dream as George and Lennie that haven't come true. Crooks says that none of the peoples dreams come true, this foreshadows that Georges and Lennies may nit come true. As a result, The failure of dreams creates an effect creates an uncertainty that their dream will come true. Not only does Crooks think that their dream will not come true, but George lost hope in their dream too. While George and Lennie are sleeping by the water, George tells Lennie a story about what their farm would be like, but George breaks down and doesn't want to talk about it. While George and Lennie are sleeping by the water, George tells Lennie a story about what their farm would be like, but George breaks down and doesn't want to talk about it. “I aint got time for no more…” in other words, George is tired of having dreams he doesn't think he can
This piece of literature portrays that false hope is a part of everyday life especially during the great depression. Every influential character in this novella seemed to have some sort of goal in their life that was discontented by the harsh reality of their life and the economy of the United States. George Milton expected for things to get better if he kept working hard, but then Lennie killed Curley’s wife, resulting in George euthanizing Lennie. Working hard and praying that life will get better isn’t always enough, which is the message of harsh reality that Of Mice and Men sends to the novella’s readers. Like everybody, George had a dream of happiness and comfort, which never became reality because of
In the novel, Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck used George and Lennie's relationship and the theme of hope to point out the loneliness in the novel. The novel starts off and is set in Soledad which means lonely. At the beginning they get a job working on a farm together. Lennie is a little retarded and has great physical strength that isn't too controllable. As they work from ranch to ranch, Lennie relies on George for guidance and help. Rather than wasting their earnings, they try to save it in the hope of buying a place of their own. While working at one ranch they meet a worker named Candy who tries to help them financially. Before their dream can be fulfilled, Lennie kills the wife of the boss's son. As the novel concludes George must kill Lennie for his own benefit. Later Lennie goes into town and abandons his dream by spending his money.
Candy and George have just found Curley’s wife's body. Candy asks George if their farm dream can still happen, but George says that the dream was going to fail anyways. Steinbeck writes, “I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much, I got to thinking maybe we would” (Steinbeck 94). The farm dream means quite a bit to everyone considering it means security from the harsh world they live in. for Crooks it means respect and equality, for Candy it means security for his age, and for George and Lennie it means security from Lennie getting in trouble, and financial stability. Even though all these people are rooting for this dream, it still ends up failing. Curley’s wife is also an example of dreams failing. She could have been in the movies, but sadly her overbearing mother forces her to stay home. She then makes her situation worse by marrying Curley. Even though she works for that dream, it still fails. The reasoning behind both of these dreams failing is completely due to circumstance, which makes it even more tragic. None of the characters can stop the dreams from falling, which means it's more likely that other dreams in the future can end the same way. Every dream that a main character has in “Of Mice And Men” ends up failing, making “dreams often fail” a major
Crooks dream is to work in Lennie's garden. However, it remains only a dream for them and they are awakened by the fact that they can't have the perfect American dream. Another way that this idea is used in the book and by characters is that Lennie and George keep faithful to the American dream as a way to give them hope and something to look forward to in life. The book takes place in the great depression where power was everything and if you were weak you were killed off by the strong so that they could survive.
George and Lennie live in a hopeless present but they somehow try to keep a foot in an idealized future. They dream of one day running their own ranch, safe and answerable to no one. Others such as Curley's wife dreams of being a movie star, Crooks, of hoeing his own patch and Candy's couple of acres'.The dream ends with the death of Lennie.
The novel of mice and men by John Steinbeck is a heartwarming story about two men George and Lennie. George is a small stocky man who prides himself on his ability to be independent, and often taunts Lennie by saying "God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want.” (pg12). Lennie on the other hand is a very large childlike man who is very dependent of George. These two have stuck together for a long time and over that time have developed a dream of owning their own ranch. Steinbeck uses a variety of techniques to display the theme “even the best laid themes can go wrong”
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Hopes and Dreams Help People to Survive, Even if they can Never. Become Real How is this true for George and Lennie/ the characters in ‘Of Mice and the.. Men’. An important theme in ‘Of Mice and Men’ is that of hope and dreams. The main dream is that of George and Lennie to own a smallholding and work self-sufficiently.
Candy, Lennie, and George all have the dream to own land; they discuss gathering money together to save. Lennie meets Crooks and they talk a while as they wait for George to return from town with the other workers. The pair goes through all the trials and tribulations of owning land only to be stopped by personal conflict. John Steinbeck illustrates the theme of dreams and the affection on the decisions the characters of Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife make in Of Mice and Men.
After George and Candy discover that Lennie accidentally killed Curley's wife, the dream they shared was shattered, and Candy began to ponder on how he “could of hoed in the garden” if it was not for Curley's wife (96). When a dream is almost fulfilled, the disappointment intensifies when the dream fails, causing the dreamers to think about how it would have been to finally be able to live the dream in real life. People usually immerse themselves in their failures rather than rising above their disappointments to continue fighting for their dreams. After retelling the dream to Lennie, George stops telling the dream because he did not have “time for no more” (15). George stopped telling the dream to Lennie because he did not want to hear more about something that he knew would never happen. George has probably been living with the dream long before he knew Lennie because George is always the one who depicts the dream to Lennie, and George has never been successful in achieving it. After their almost fulfilled dream dies, George tells Candy that he knew “from the very first” that they would “never do her” (94). George tries to lessen the pain of the failed dream by telling himself that the dream was never going to be achieved. George could have not traveled so far as to almost buy his treasured piece of land without having
Candy didn't have anything so he wanted grow old on the ranch with George and Lennie (pg59-60) but then Lennie kills Curly's Wife and his dream dies (pg.94). Candy's dreams end in a pessimistic outlook because all he wanted got destroyed leaving him with nothing. Crooks dream was to be respected and not looked at for his color and wanted to live on the ranch with Curly Lennie and George (pg.64). Even though he wanted this he noticed by what Curly's wife said to him that his dream will never be achieved, so he changes his mind (pg.
The point of living is so that you can accomplish something by the time you die. Therefore hopes and dreams are the driving force of life. Hopes and dreams are exactly what kept the two migrant workers, George and Lennie, going on in life. Their ambition of one day having a farm of their own is what makes Lennie and George work as hard as they do. The theme of these ambitions being deleterious is what makes up the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Even though the ambitions that the characters of the story have could show to be better for them and be their fresh start if proven pointless, the theme of the book Of Mice and Men is that ambitions are deleterious because for Lennie and George their hopes of one
Crook’s dream was to have freedom like he had when he was a child. George and Lennie’s dreams were very similar in their own way. Georges dream was about getting a piece of land of his own and Lennie’s dream was to tend to the rabbits on their own piece of land. George and Lennie’s dream was the main dream throughout the book where they thought of owning a ranch of their own. Lennie’s concern in the dream was about tending the rabbits, which is emphasised in the number of times he mentions it during the book, “tendin´ the rabbits”.