Comparing The American Dream In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

814 Words4 Pages
Is the American dream all that everyone says it is? Do we make our own destiny or are we destined by society? The characters George, Lennie, Crooks and Curley's wife in the book Of Mice and Men perceive the American dream in different ways. Throughout this book you can see that life can sometimes lead us to a path we are not ready for or that we do not like. We can always hope and strive for things but it doesn’t mean we will get them. In the end, we have to be careful what we wish for and what we want. In the book John Steinbeck highlights the praiseworthy hope that the characters have about the American dream. Throughout the story the characters try to reach this American dream but the journey is not all that they cut it out to be. John Steinbeck first introduces the impossibility of the American dream when George and Lennie are by the pool of water resting before they head to work the next day. When they were on the bank of the pool they described what they perceived the American dream as. In the first chapter page fourteen of the book George says” Guys like us, that work on…show more content…
She mentions about her dream to become an actress. Her exact word when pronouncing this is”coulda been in the movies, an’ coulda had nice clothes- all them nice clothes like they wear. An’ i coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers took of me. When they had them previews I coulda went to them, an’ spoke in the radio, an’ it wouldn’ta cost me a cent because I was in the pitcher. An’ all them nice clothes like they wear. Because this guy says was natural.” This can be found on page eighty-nine. During that time period women were often looked at as property in the sense of you married them and got children. So by her saying that she wants to pursue her dream to become an actress it shows the impossibility of the American dream because women weren't normally actress back
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