The American Dream in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

'Of Mice And Men' explores the ways in which both immigrants and

Americans tried to conquer and obtain their goal in life, which in

this case was to try and attain their own the American Dream. I will

also explores ways in how the American Dream is central to the novel

and how Steinbeck reflects the society at the time.

In the early 1900's the object that determined the wealth of a family,

the object that was mentioned in every conversation all over the world

and the object that was every man's most wanted desire, was land. All

around the world people heard that land was given away for free when

you set foot on American soil. This became known as the American

Dream. Many people would sell all their possessions just to buy a one

way ticket to America in the hope of finding a piece of land, but they

were misinformed. Land was not given away for free, because of this

and the fact that people would arrive without a job or money, the

American Dream often became a nightmare. 'They come, an' they quit an'

go on, an' every damn one of them has got a piece of land in their

head.' People started moving around the country and everywhere they

go, they would still be in search of their dream, the dream of some

day having their own piece of land. Many people America at the time

could never find job to earn money and very often never achieved their

American Dream because of this, depression started to sink into the

minds of the population and the period of the great depression

started. In this period, most people lost the hope of becoming a

better person with a better lifestyle, therefore just wondering around

the country with no aim to their liv...

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somewhere else.

However, some people did achieve their American Dream even though

'they probably had an advantage like being wealthy, but this was in

the minority.'(www.google.com - America in the 1030's) Steinbeck

showed us an example of this through the ranch owner that owns Tyler's

ranch having achieved his American Dream and therefore his son Curley

has an advantage, already being wealthy and having piece of land.

We can see that Steinbeck has researched problems during the time and

different types of American Dreams. He then created a character to fit

each example and then created a story around it. The reason why

Steibeck wrote this book was probably to let people in America and all

around the world more aware of the problems in America. As well as to

warn other people not to immigrate to America.