Of Mice And Men American Dream Analysis

Since America’s founding, people have been working to achieve the perfect life. The phrase “American Dream” was coined by James Truslow Adams. Adams took all the hopes and dreams of the American people and put them into one idea. This idea is the American Dream. The thought of the American Dream has been around since 1931, with the thought that everyone who comes to America should have equal opportunities for success through hard work regardless of social class. While the idea of the American Dream has been around for much longer than the phrase “American Dream” it has always been just that, a dream. The American Dream is a fantasy that has been a hope for those in the lower class as a way to get out of poverty and create the life they have …show more content…
George and Lennie travel the country together looking for work in order to support themselves during the Great Depression, and hope to create a farm that they can live off of and support themselves with. This was the only real hope keeping them going throughout their dream, though George never really believed that it was possible. Lennie was talking to a stable buck, Crooks, and when Lennie mentioned his dream, Crooks mentions that he has “seen hundreds of men come by … and’ every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it” (Steinbeck 70). Hundreds of men came with one idea, and none of them got what they wanted. These men that came were all hardworking, doing manual labor all day, and they still could not manage to make enough to fulfill their dream of creating a little ranch that they could support themselves on. The American Dream means that anyone who puts in the work will be able to create a life that they want for themselves. If hardworking men who work all day, every day are not able to simply buy a little piece of land, then the American Dream cannot