Discuss the importance of dreams and reality in ...

*This is an essay I wrote in preparation for my Literature exam. What do you think? *

A major theme in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is the theme of Dreams. Steinbeck's characters, Lennie, George, Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife, all have dreams and have all allowed themselves to believe in the American Dream. None of them actually achieve their dreams, which shows the reader the reality of the American Dream. Steinbeck uses naturalism, in the sense that these people face barriers and can not achieve their dreams, and there fore have no free will.

The American Dream was a term first used by the author James Truslow in 1931. He describes the American Dream as 'that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each, according to ability, or achievement.' The American Dream was about freedom and equality, rather than wealth. However, the American Dream was very unrealistic as people did not achieve this equality that they had hoped the dream would bring them. There were many barriers, that are presented to the reader in 'Of Mice And Men' that prevented people from the 'freedom and equality' that this dream promised. In the novella, the barriers and fate that the characters were victims to, kept them where they are, which integrates naturalism into the story.

George and Lennie's dream is the first dream that the reader becomes aware of, in the novella. In chapter 1, George describes the dream to Lennie, 'We're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres…'. Their dream sounds simple, all they want is a place of their own, and stability, like many migrant workers back then. However, the dream becomes unrealistic when George starts going into a lot of detail about it, later on in the book, he tells Lennie about the 'little fat iron stove' and ' the cream is so God damn think you gotta cut it with a knife', there is too much detail and everything is taken to the extreme, making the dream unrealistic to the reader.

However, when Candy hears about the dream, he doesn't find it unrealistic. He lost his dog, when Carlson shot him, and that was his only companion. On the other hand, Candy knows that he will be fired soon, as his hand was damaged in a machine and he's old 'Jus' as soon as I can't swamp out no bunk houses, they'll put me on the county.' So when he hears about the dream, he becomes very enthusiastic about it, as he wants stability, so that people can't fire him and put him on the streets, as he'll be homeless. So, Candy begins to share the dream that Lennie and George have.

Crooks is the lonely stable buck, who is an outcast because of the skin of his color, which is his barrier. Crooks longs for companionship. He is convinced that ' A guy goes nuts if he ain't got no body' so, even though life has made him cynical and mean, when Lennie and Candy don't judge him and treat him as an equal, he allows himself to believe, for a short time, that maybe he can be a part of their dream, even though he criticizes it at first 'an' every one damn of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head', saying that this is a typical dream among migrant workers. He allows himself to be drawn into the dream, hoping for companionship, but that hope is trashed when Curley's wife reminds him of where he belongs socially because of his barrier.

Curley's wife, who is not given an identity is another person who has unrealistic dreams in this novella. Her dreams are more glamorous than those of the other characters. She tells Lennie that she 'coulda' been in the movies an' had nice clothes'. Her dream is to be famous and to have a lot of people notice her. Curley's wife is the most isolated character in the book, as no one wishes to speak to her, because of the fact that she's a woman and Curley's wife, therefore people are afraid to talk to her.

'You're all just afraid of each other' she says, as people ignore her once again.

Ironically, it is Curley's wife who puts an end to her own dream, and not so ironically to George and Lennie's dream. Curley's wife longs for companionship and she lets herself be too close to Lennie. Lennie's disability, which is his barrier, causes him to kill her, when he panics. This puts an end to George, Lennie and Candy's dream. George realizes that Lennie needs to be punished, but does not let him be tortured. He shows mercy towards Lennie by shooting him himself, when he says 'Look across the river , Lennie, an' I'll tell you so you can almost see it.' . He lets Lennie die, with hopes that the dream will come true. However, George will not have the same comfort, as the dream did not exist without Lennie and can't exist without Lennie. The dream died with Lennie, and Candy is left to live with the disappointment while George has lost his only companion and the dream. In a way, George has lost his other half. According to Freud, a person is made up of an Ego and an Id. The Id concentrates on basic drives, like Lennie, and the Ego is the responsible one, who pleases his drives in realistic way, this was George. So, together they formed one person.

The reader is able to see through Steinbeck's novel, the reality of the American Dream. The dream is unreachable to many, as people face many barriers. When the book was set, these barriers included skin color, as in the case of Crooks, gender, presented by Curley's wife, as well as a disability, which Lennie, Crooks and Candy all have. It was Lennie's barrier that put an end to the dream that he shared with George and Candy, when his mild mental disability caused him to kill Curley's wife. Crooks realized that his skin color would never allow him to have a companion. Curley's wife, who was lonely, simply wanted attention, and in her desperation to get it, she killed herself, and she killed her dream as well as Candy, George's and Lennie's dream. Steinbeck uses naturalism to show people how unrealistic this dream is, and how people can not achieve equality and freedom as there are forces, such as the barriers that they face and fate that keep them where they are. None of the characters achieve their dreams at the end of the story, because the barriers that they faced were too great to overcome and very unrealistic. 'Of Mice and Men' is a realistic novella, it shows the Irony of the American Dream, it is not for everybody, despite of the fact that, that's what it promises.