How Hard To Achieve The American Dream

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In “Of Mice And Men”, John Ernst Steinbeck by using narrative to draw the two poor guys (George and Lennie) working by a farm, how they achieve the American dream. It’s not as easy for George and Lennie to achieve their American dream because of the cruel reality. That fiction is very dramatic, the author uses a lot exaggeration to describe the trouble they got and how they figure it out. The main point for this paper we need to discuss is the American dream in that society is it very hard to conquer a lot of factors such as money, time, power, etc. American Dream is possible for some people but not George and Lennie. it is just unreachable utopian. There are numerous reasons to support they can not achieve their dream.

First of all, the people who want to become successful or achieve their American Dream, should hardworking as much as they can. Lennie is really good at physical work. “Say, you sure were right about him. Maybe he ain’t bright, but I never have seen such a worker. he damn near killed his partner buckin’barley. There ain’t nobody can keep up with him. God almighty I never have seen such a strong guy.”(Steinbeck 45) Everyone has their own advantage, and how successful you are depending on how to use your advantage to get better and better. The first step is hardworking, Hard work can get you a generous return from your work, the salary depends how on hard work you are. In this century, money is nothing, but without money, you can do nothing which means that, if you are hard-working, get as much salary as you can, You are not far from American Dream.

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Secondly, Most people(including George) in the story, they spend their salary to gamble, drink, and hooker. salary paid on Friday, they then spend all of them on Friday night, which means that George does not have enough money to rent or buy land to create their own farm, and buying livestock costs most of the money, George does not know how to saving money, how successful he can be? that is what I say, the American dream is possible but not for George and Lennie. There is evidence to show that George spends his salary to “have fun”.

“You can get a shot for two bits. Susy got nice chairs to set in……her crackin’ jokes all the time. Like she says one time, she says, I’ve known people that if they got a rag rug on the floor Kewpie doll lamp on the phonograph they think they’re running a parlor house…”Steinbeck 52). And also When George killed Lennie, slim said“ Come, on George. I and you’ll go in and get a drink” George let himself be helped to his feet.‘Yeah, a drink.’ ”(Steinbeck .107) Now we can understand why George can go get a drink after George killed his best friend because he can’t do anything, he can only accept helplessly. like the other worker, waste time and live.

Thirdly, there is no absolute equality in this world, there are always have Darkside besides us, For example, discrimination is everywhere, color different, idea different and education degree different. especially in the last century, just happened in the book. “Nigger, huh?”. “Yeah. Nice fella too. Got a crooked back where a horse kicked him. The boss gives him hell when he’s mad. But the stable buck doesn’t give a damn about that” He reads a lot. Got books in his room. leaned eagerly toward him. “Let’s go, george。”(Steinbeck 15.). They bolling this black person just because he is black, which was unequal to this guy. Crooks can not live with other people because he is black, he does not have his own right to play with them, the place he can go is horse dorm. Even they have an emergency need talk to Crooks, they just stand outside talk to Crooks. Although he lives in this group, he lives on an isolated island, with nobody to talk to. For Lennie, everyone thinks Lennie is dumb, most of the people do not want to make friends with Lennie, that’s why Lennie is inseparable with George because George is the only person who wants make friend with Lennie.

Fourthly, Female roles in society. At the end of the 20 century, American society starts changing, traditional spiritual beliefs have been impacted by economic development. The female role is weaker than the male. At this time, the feminist movement started, females start to fight for their own rights. the numerous females start to go get jobs and high educations. Those changes promote redefine their role in society. In ‘of mice and men’, there only have one female character in this book, it is Curry’s wife. A woman whose name is unknown. even her name is unknown, she also has her American dream, become a dancer ‘Another time I met a guy, and he was in pitchers. I went out to the Riverside Dance Place with him. He says he was gonna put me in the movies……. but I never got that letter”.(Steinbeck 88). When her dreams collapsed, she chose to marry someone to settle down. She chose Curry, the man she met at the dance. It is the biggest irony the author has created for her life as she has lost the one thing she values, her American Dream. Her dream might indeed be unrealistic and illusory, but it is still a positive attitude she held for her life, at least she dares to fight for it. In the end, when she has to deal with her selfish, suspicious by nature, and overbearing husband, she became disappointed in her life. When Curry questions her loyalty to their marriage, she begins to flirt with the farmers just to provoke him. Another example is her carelessness and lack of empathy when Curry’s arm was broken. These are all subconscious struggle she had trying to return to her once hopeful life.

Of a person’s humanity to the American dream, the author John Ernst Steinbeck has done various jobs, Steinbeck knows the lives of the people at the bottom. Steinbeck knows how hard to fix it when they have trouble. He was always sympathized with being oppressed, the victim of slavery. He always has hope, trust people finally can find their utopian. Even at the end of this novel is cruel. Everyone in this novel can not escape the fate of tragedy but everyone has hope, hope they can achieve their American dream in the future. Steinbeck reflecting social issues in works. when the works reflect the tragic fate and emotional life of the agricultural workers, they are full of tragedy.

Characters destiny in the story just like the name of the book, in modern capitalism, people can not escape away this “spider web”, this spider web called society, their destiny just liked mice, can not control by themself, they always doing jobs as much as they can, always has hope, always can not control their destiny, the novel by using description George’s pursuit of the American dream, how the dreams are shattered, that explain the unrealistic nature of the American dream. It is destruction is a pathological manifestation of American economic and social prosperity.

The meaning of mice in this novel. It is very dramatic, the vitality of mice is very tenacious, flexible and cunning. The people in this novel, just like mice, not in the presence of powerful nature control of their destiny. Make the image of the mice symbolic. Another animal dog still represents some people’s destiny, candy just like his dogs, Candy spends his life for this farm, due to interruption of a hand at hand. Candy knows he got old, he would be fired as soon as possible. For his dogs, that killed by Carlson because Candy’s dog is old and weak, smile stench. The death of animals also laid the groundwork for the death of future characters. They have the same destiny in this novel, it is a big irony in society at this time. The author using that irony to express his concern about labor relations and racial discrimination and sympathy for lower-level workers.“Steinbeck’s first three novels told of dreams subjectively, with imperfect realism; and described dreams which were selfish and distorted. His next three novels told of dreamers objectively, with increasing realism; but described of dreamers which, for one reason or another, were doomed to defeat. His last two books have distorted characters whose dreams are valid, and who have (to some degree) realized them.” (Carpenter 454-467)

The beginning and the end of the novel form a stark contrast. A pair of inseparable partners living in this lonely and indifferent world. due to the trick of reality, eventually died in the hands of the other party. The American dream is possible to achieve, but not for George and Lennie, they were doomed to defeat for some reason, to represent How hard to achieve the American dream.

Reference

  1. Carpenter, Frederic I. ‘John Steinbeck: American Dreamer.’ Southwest Review 26.4 (1941):
  2. Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books, 1994. Print.

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