, Research Paper

( From the Reader & # 180 ; s Digest Great Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Third Edition ) dream n. Train of ideas, images, or illusions go throughing through head during slumber ; Conscious indulgence of illusion, revery, thing of dream-like beauty, appeal, goodness, etc. As it is described above, a dream is something you indulge in, to get away momently from life. This seems to be the context that John Steinbeck intended his characters in Of Mice and Men to woolgather in. They are all hungering for something & # 8211 ; in the instance of George and Lennie, that something is land. They are non the first traveling spread hands to raise up images of their ain land, or of being their ain foremans. This dream is similar to the Great American Dream, that you can accomplish anything if you have the head and desire to make it ( and if Uncle Sam approves ) . Dreams are simple things in some ways, yet surprisingly complex in others. Although we are non told this portion of the narrative, imagine when George and Lennie foremost came up with their piece of the apple pie that is the Great American Dream. George was likely joging on, as people seem to make around Lennie ( take, for illustration, Crooks when Lennie goes into his room at dark ) . What was merely a simple thing to George, something T! O while off another twosome of proceedingss on the manner to another spread, became something of a arrested development to Lennie. After reiterating it to Lennie as a bedtime narrative, possibly he finally came to believe it himself. George and Lennie & # 180 ; s dream is a simple one & # 8211 ; they want land to name their ain. The feeling is summed up good by Candy: & # 8220 ; Every organic structure wants a spot of land, non much. Jus som & # 180 ; thin & # 180 ; that was his. & # 8221 ; Crooks has besides seen it all before: & # 8220 ; I seen cats about brainsick with lonelinessfor land, but of all time & # 180 ; clip a whore-houseor a jack oak game took what it takes. & # 8221 ; George & # 180 ; s dream, although highly similar to Lennie & # 180 ; s, is likely more elaborate and complicated. Lennie thinks every bit far as & # 8220 ; tendin & # 180 ; the coneies & # 8221 ; , but George has to worry about whether it would be possible to truly & # 8220 ; unrecorded offa fatta of the local area network & # 180 ; & # 8221 ; , or would they hunger? Lennie, with his child-like outlook, believes whatever he hears, so when George tells him that they will truly acquire their ain land, he believes with all his bosom. To Lennie, the inquiry is non if, but when: & # 8220 ; George, how long & # 180 ; s it gon na be till we get that littleplace an & # 180 ; live on the fatta the local area network & # 180 ; & # 8211 ; an & # 180 ; coneies? & # 8221 ; At the beginning of the novel, there are already some uncertainties as to whether the brace will accomplish their dreams. We are told that the two work forces had to go forth Weed because of some problem that Lennie caused. This seems to predict that they might neglect to recognize their dreams because of Lennie & # 180 ; s fancy for petting things. And this is precisely what happens. Lennie, although killed by George, truly died when Curley & # 180 ; s married woman set her sights on the large adult male. When George meets up with Lennie after the accident, he knows the dream is over for him excessively. He besides knew what he had to make every bit shortly as he found out what Lennie had done ; why else would he hold stolen Carson & # 180 ; s Luger? Possibly Lennie did acquire his dream, in one manner or the other. As George is fixing to kill Lennie, he tells him one last clip about & # 8220 ; how it & # 180 ; s gon na be. & # 8221 ; This last bedtime narrative for Lennie seems to depict non a small farm that they might purchase, but the Eden person might travel to in their hereafter. As Lennie begs George & # 8220 ; Le & # 180 ; s do it now. Le & # 180 ; s go to that topographic point now & # 8221 ; , and George answers & # 8220 ; Sure, right now. I got ta. We got ta & # 8221 ; , and so pulls the trigger, the brace seem at peace with themselves, and each other. George knows what he is making is right, and he knows that Lennie would hold if he had the clip to explicate his concluding to him. If Lennie could grok the logical thinking behind George & # 180 ; s actions, he would gain that George was taking Candy & # 180 ; s unwittingly offered advice: & # 8220 ; I ought to of shooting that dog myself, George. Ishouldn & # 180 ; T ought to hold let no alien hit my dog. & # 8221 ; Rather so allowing Curley shoot Lennie in the backbones with a scattergun, and leave him to decease a slow and painful decease, George decides to offer his friend one last item of comrades

hip: a painless way out into the land of their dream. Curley?s wife has a different type of dream. Instead of something to call her own, she wants fame, fortune and admiration. She tells the three “bindle stiffs” about her offers of fame. She is unhappy with her husband, and his constant stories of who he?s going beat up next: “Sure I gotta husban?. You allseen him. Swell guy, ain?t he?” When she is talking to Lennie, alone in the barn, she recounts her obviously well told stories of her offers of fame. She seems to have a deep regret that she didn?t take up either of the men on their offers: “If I?d went, I wouldn?t be livin? like this, you bet.” She also deeply believes in what she was told by the man who may have been only trying his luck with this woman, not knowing she would take his word as gospel: “He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural.” Her monologue, broken by only a few words from Lennie, tells of her need for affection, and how she needs to be wanted. Curley?s wife does not seem at all likely to achieve her dreams. Even if she wasn?t murdered, she was stuck in a rut with Curley, a rut that would she would have gone round and round in until he left her for a new woman, or she finally built up the courage to leave him. Also, someone who is referred to throughout an entire story as someone?s possession does not make a likely major character. Their marriage did not seem like one that was destined to last until they died of natural causes. But Curley?s wife did die, and her death, it seemed, was a release:“… the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young.” This apparent release through death seems to lay the foundations for Lennie?s violent death, and its meaning. Curley himself has a dream that he has nearly achieved. He has a job, a house and a wife. For Curley, the old saying is true: “Two outta three ain?t bad.” His wife is the only negative aspect to his dream. She is not a storybook wife, and that is what Curley wants. Although she is obviously the submissive partner in the relationship (this is apparent by the way in which she is referred to as ‘Curley?s wife?), she is not submissive enough for Curley. As Candy the swamper told George and Lennie when they first met: “Well – she got the eye.” He goes on to tell them about the way he has seen her give the other men on the ranch “the eye”. He embellishes his previous statement with:“Well, I think Curley?s married … a tart.” Although Curley hasn?t seen any of this, according to Candy, he must have a feeling. He also has a dream that lots of short people have – to be bigger. He is extremely brusque with Lennie from the start, and the main reason for this is Lennie?s size. Curley seems very bitter about being short, and throughout the book seems to be trying to assert his position as the tough guy on the ranch. Curley, like his wife and Lennie, also seems to have been released in death, although in an indirect and very morbid way. Maybe he will miss his wife, or maybe he will use their mortal separation as a new starting point, a time to find out what he really wants, and perhaps a new wife, that doesn?t have “the eye”. Whit?s dream is stirred up from his subconscious mind by a name that jumped out from the page of a magazine. His old partner on the pea fields, Bill Tenner, got his letter printed in a magazine, something Whit seems envious about. This is a great example of a small man, who thinks small, aims low and probably misses. Candy does not seem to have a dream until he meets George and Lennie. He is swept up in the plausible reality of this dream, a dream he would probably be too scared to initiate by himself. Candy is not happy with his life on the ranch, but he doesn?t think that there is anything that he can do. The other main character in the story, Slim, doesn?t seem to have a dream. He seems to be happy with his job, and the skill with which he has been blessed. The idea of successful characters not having dreams is given further weight by the miniscule par