Josh McClain
Mrs. Neely
English III
7 April 2012
American Dream In the novel, Of Mice and Men, the major theme is to live out the American Dream. According to James Truslow Adams, who was and American writer and historian in the early 1900s, the definition of the American Dream is that “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement (Adams). “But the American Dream is a tough concept to understand because the dream could be different for different people, such as Lennie and George who have two different dreams. Also the American Dream during the 1930s was tremendously difficult to accomplish. For instance someone living in the 1930s, like Lennie and George, had to work very hard for their American Dream to come true. But although the American Dream is different for everyone, Lennie and George struggled to try to accomplish their American Dream. In Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie had two different dreams that gave them enough strength to never give up. Lennie’s dream was he wanted a life that was more simple and easy going. Lennie seemed to be more excited about the dream than George was because whenever Lennie would start talking about tending the rabbits on the farm George would sometimes get aggravated and yell at Lennie. For example in the novel Lennie said, “I remember about the rabbits, George.” Then George says, “The hell with the rabbits. That’s all you can ever remember is them rabbits. (Steinbeck, 1993)” This makes it seem as if George understands the reality of how hard it is going to be to accomplish This dream, and Lennie does not. Also in the novel Lennie is the one that likes talking about their dream and George is much quieter about it. "O.K. Someday—we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs