Of Mice And Men: Poem Analysis

The title of the book Of Mice and Men comes from an 18th Century Robert Burns poem. The plot of this poem, according to Shmoop.com is “the speaker has accidentally turned up a mouse's nest with his plow. He pauses for a little rumination about how men and animals might seem different, but in the end, they're all mortal” This is a lot like a prevalent theme throughout one of Steinbeck's most famous stories. This theme of the reality of the American dream. In the story, almost every character has dreams that just don’t become reality. The main character’s dreams are some of the biggest. These dreams come up often in the story. Says lit charts, “In the bleak economic outlook of the Great Depression, during which the novel was written and set, …show more content…
Before her death, Curley’s wife confesses her desire to be a movie star. Crooks, bitter as he is, allows himself the pleasant fantasy of hoeing a patch of garden on Lennie’s farm one day, and Candy latches on desperately to George’s vision of owning a couple …show more content…
Shmoop helped me realize that “Of Mice and Men shows that for poor migrant workers during the Depression, the American Dream became an illusion and a trap. All the ranch hands in Of Mice and Man dream of life, liberty, and happiness, but none ever gets it.” The main dream in Of Mice and Men is that of Lennie and George. They dream of owning their very own property, owning rabbits and having a garden. This was a common dream, and many people throughout the book who didn’t have a dream of their own latched on to it. Says SparkNotes, “Their journey, which awakens George to the impossibility of this dream, sadly proves that the bitter Crooks is right: such paradises of freedom, contentment, and safety are not to be found in this