Of Mice and Men - Finding the Dream

Life in the 1930’s was not easy.  Finding work was difficult, and men were forced to take what they could get to feed themselves and their families.   Everyone has a dream, but in the 1930’s it was nearly impossible to reach because of the harsh conditions.  George and Lennie were typical of many men of that era.  They held on to their dream and gave all they could to try to reach it. In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses the characters of George and Lennie to illustrate that although the quest for the American Dream gave men hope, it was often unattainable.  

George and Lennie did not have an easy life, but helped keep each other motivated. They travelled the country together to find work. They were forced to leave their old job and hit the road with their bindles to the next one. As they walked George reminisced, “‘Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail in some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to.”... With us it’s not like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us,” (Page 13-14) George and Lennie have a unique bond because they both travel together and treat each other like family. That bond makes them feel special and sets them apart from some of the other workers. For example, when Lennie tells the other workhands, Crooks and Candy, about their plans for the future, Candy shares his opinion. “Sure they all want it. Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much. Jus’ somethin’ that was his. Somethin’ he could live on and there couldn’t nobody throw him off of it. I never had none. I planted crops for damn near ever’body in this state, but they wasn’t my crops, and when I harvested em’, it wasn’t none of my harvest.”(Page 76) Candy has worked hard his entire life, and he still hasn’t made enough money to get his own piece of land, that he always dreamed of having. Candy had seen hundreds of men pass through the ranch,