Envisioning dreams which are meant to be accomplished is a human created concept to motivate ourselves to alter the course of our future, or as quoted by renowned poet Henri Amiel, “Dreams are excursions into the limbo of things, a semi-deliverance from the human prison”. In other words, dreams are an imaginary escape route from our inescapable reality. John Steinbeck’s emotional novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ highlights the unfortunate disparity between unfeasible dreams and reality. Two of the leading characters, George and Lennie, share a similar sense of dissatisfaction with their lives on a lifeless ranch. As a result, they lure themselves into an appealing fantasy, unaware of the dark and deadly events that will follow them while in pursuit of this hopeful dream. Alongside George and Lennie, other figures in this story, such as Crookes and Curley’s wife, also envision living in ideal worlds to escape their current misery, which ultimately ends up as their destiny. Steinbeck alludes to the fact that the power resided within dreams remains inadequate to override one’s fate, and although having dreams may assist in overcoming present day hardships, they lack the power to foreshadow our predestined future.
The longing of fulfilling dreams followed by disappointment begins early on in the story where George recites a dream to Lennie while they rest by the river. George starts the story by replicating factual information that runs parallel with their own lives by stating that: “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re pounding in their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to” (Steinbeck, 13). This depressing description of the lives that George and Lennie are bonded to indicates that George is well aware of the patterns embedded in the lifestyle that ranch men similar to them are certain to follow. He also initiates a sense of loneliness that they are experiencing when he says that “they got no family. They don’t belong no place”. In sum, George implies that him and Lennie are fated to live dull and dreary lives because “they ain’t got nothing to look ahead to”. However, George attempts to assure Lennie, his naive companion of a promising future by telling him that: “We’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof” (Steinbeck, 14). At the end of George’s narration, he shouts “Nuts!” (Steinbeck, 15). He then instantly proceeds to continue opening cans of beans for dinner. This sudden remark suggests that George experiences an epiphany near the end of the story, one that reminds him of the bitter reality from which there is no running away from. He suddenly realizes that this dream, which keeps Lennie functioning, and one in which he was also momentarily invested into, is foolish as it practically has no chance of occurring amidst their current situation.
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The sadness of unaccomplished dreams reappears in the life of Curley’s wife, who lives a lonesome life, constantly excluded from those around her. Curley’s wife shares her misfortune with Lennie, describing her encounter with a man who “[said] he was gonna put [her] in the movies” (Steinbeck, 88). The devastation of not becoming an actress, along with the misery of living on the ranch with her hostile husband, causes Curley’s wife to reminisce about what her life could have been like. Steinbeck uses luxurious descriptions of the lifestyle that could have belonged to her if fate has been in the favor of her yearnings, describing how she “coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes-all them nice clothes like wear. An’ [she] coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers took of [her]” (Steinbeck, 89). Curley’s wife longs for the attention she believes she is deserving of, but unfortunately does not receive it from Curley or the ranch members, who view her as a bothersome hurdle who constantly creates nuisance. Her tedious life is eventually taken from her in a disturbing accident in which Lennie accidently breaks her neck. The irony here is that Curley’s wife dies shortly after telling her dream to Lennie, who unintentionally kills her in attempt to save his own. He tried to stop her from screaming because if she did not, George would “let him tend no rabbits” (Steinbeck, 91). All in all, the death of Curley’s wife not only signifies the end of her life, but it also represents the end of her dreams, which remain shattered.
Just as Curley’s wife held feelings of resentment towards her existing life, Crooks, a victim of racial prejudice, is out casted from his neighboring workers, which causes a great deal of animosity within him. Crooks discloses his dark and disheartening experience of constantly being left in isolation to his newly found friend Lennie, to whom he says: “A guy sets alone here at night, maybe readin’ books or thinkin’ or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin’, an’ he got nothing to tell him what’s so an’ what ain’t so. Maybe if he sees somethin’, he don’t know whether it’s right or not. He can’t turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees it too. He can’t tell. He got nothing to measure by I seen things out here. I wasn’t drunk. I don’t know if I was asleep. If some guy was with me, he could tell me I was asleep, an’ then it would be alright. But I jus’ don’t know” (Steinbeck, 73). Crooks highlights the fact that being secluded for such a long period of time has drove him to paranoia to the point where “... if he sees somethin’, he don’t know whether its right or not”. It is evident Crookes loses sight of reality and may possibly be experiencing hallucinations because of his exclusion from others. Eventually, Crooks peaks his interest in becoming a part of George and Lennie’s plan to invest in a home that belongs exclusively to them, when Candy, an elderly coworker, offers to input his savings towards buying the house in fear of being abandoned by the ranch. However, Crooks interest vanishes when Curley’s wife abruptly tells him to “keep [his] place” after he tells her that “[she] got not right comin’ in a coloured man’s room” (Steinbeck, 80). Her impolite remark reminds Crookes of his degraded position in society, and he realizes immediately that he was way in over his head to even imagine living in a place where others saw him as an equal mate This results in the destruction of his one and only dream.
The dream of George, Lennie, and Candy goes to despair after the men on the ranch go on a hunt to kill Lennie in order to seek vengeance for the death of Curley’s wife. When George finds him in their emergency hideout, he recites the dream to Lennie prior to shooting him signifying the death of Lennie along with their beloved dream.
In conclusion, Steinbeck highlights the fact that fate cannot be reversed, and while dreams hold the power to imagine change and prosperity in the future, it is fate that one must learn to accept.
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