The title of the novel Of Mice And Men refers to how dreams often go

The title of the novel Of Mice And Men refers to how dreams often go

wrong. Discuss how John Steinbeck achieves this.

Question 3-The title of the novel 'Of Mice And Men' refers to how

dreams often go wrong. Discuss how John Steinbeck achieves this.

One of the main themes that runs through Of Mice And Men is of dreams

and how they go wrong. The title of the book is very appropriate to

this theme as it comes from a poem by Robert Burns called To A Mouse,

On Turning Up Her Nest With The Plough:

'The best laid schemes o' mice and men

Gang aft a gley

And lea'e us nought but grief and pain

For promised joys."

Of Mice And Men is a tale of people's dreams that go wrong leaving the

characters pain and grief. Many of the characters in the novel have

dreams which are unlikely to and in fact don't come true.

Of Mice And Men is set in America where there is a countrywide idea of

a dream: "The American Dream". America was seen by its many immigrants

and residents as a place where they could go and make money, or own

land, a dream which was impossible to many immigrants from countries

like Ireland. The people who lived in America had always believed that

if they worked hard then they could be part of the dream.

Of Mice and Men was set during the great depression when in 1929 share

prices on the New York Stock Exchange fell dramatically. Millions of

dollars were lost, companies went out of business, people lost savings

and those who had borrowed money had to sell their homes. It is

important that it is set during the American depression as many normal

people who were already living the American dream of owning land and

having money, lost their dream as businesses folded and money lost

it's value. If ...

... middle of paper ...

...

Steinbeck builds up a scenario where we almost know what is going to

happen to Curley's wife. Youalso begin to realize how Lennie's

weakness will destroy the dream as George's poor judgment when he

decides to stay when he knew that Lennie would cause problems.

It is clear that this book portrays how dreams often go wrong. George,

Lennie, Candy and Crooks' dreams all die when Lennie dies. Even though

they have the money to complete the dream I think that it would not be

the same dream if Lennie was not there. I think that George would find

it hard to live without Lennie, but soon he will get used to it. I

think that he will try really hard to keep his job and he and the

other ranch hands will become good friends, as they are so similar. I

also think that Curley's wife had a happy ending. Her death was a way

of ending the pain that she was going through.