The Futility of Dreams in John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men Essay exampl

The Futility of Dreams in Of Mice and Men Everyone has a dream they hope to achieve, but dreams are not always feasible to attain. In John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men, two ranch hands, George and Lennie, find work in Salinas Valley. Lennie, constantly getting into trouble, inadvertently causes the two of them to be run out of townsfolk and thus have to find new work regularly. George and Lennies search for work in the hope of accomplishing their dream of a small farm of their own displays how otiose realizing dreams can be. The major themes identified by com custodytators in Of Mice and Men are friendship and isolation, hope and futility(Votteler 334). Through George and Lennies friendship, the hope to achieve their dream is kept alive. George, petty and clever, feels that Lennie has been given into his keeping(Moore 341). Simpleminded and gentle, Lennie possesses great physical strength and becomes unwittingly destructive when startled(Votteler 334). Although Lennie is very strong, he is also very timid and has trouble memory things, but under Georges control, Lennie is calm and docile since he just does what George tells him to(Moore 341). According to Moore, Of Mice and Men tells the story of two drifting ranch hands, George and Lennie, who dream, as rootless men do, of a piece of land of their own, where they will expire(341). George tells Lennie that the loneliest guys in the world are like them working on ranches, have no family, no place to belong for continually moving on to a new ranch, and have nothing to look forward to(Steinbeck 13). With them, it is not like that because they have a future, somebody to verbalise to, and are working toward getting their own farm with a couple ac... ...ited by Thomas Votteler, Detroit Gale Research Inc., 1993, p. 341-342. Rascoe, Burton. John Steinbeck, in Steinbeck and His Critics A Record of 25 Years, emended by E. W. Tedlock, Jr. and C. V. Wicker, University of New Mexico Press, 1957, pp. 57-67, in Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 75, edited by Thomas Votteler, Detroit Gale Research Inc., 1993, pp. 336-339. Shurgot, Michael W. A Game of separate in Steinbecks Of Mice and Men, in Steinbeck Quarterly, Vol. XV, Nos. 1-2, Winter-Spring, 1982, pp. 38-43, in Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 75, edited by Thomas Votteler, Detroit Gale Research Inc., 1993, pp. 362-365. Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York Penguin Books, 1993. Votteler, Thomas. Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 75, edited by Thomas Votteler, Detroit Gale Research Inc., 1993, p. 334-335.