Exploring Dreams and Desolation: Character Dynamics in ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘A Raisin in the Sun

Over the course of the story George was probably the most central to the story. Until the end he is with Lennie and progressing towards reaching his dream of buying his own land to live on. George as a character shifts greatly at the end of the book because he no longer has a dream, and no longer has Lennie. But because George killed Lennie at the end, that does not mean in was a change from George’s care for Lennie. George always looked out for Lennie, even though he did not always want to care for him. It was surprising but also understandable that George decided to kill him. He killed him because he believed there was no other way for Lennie to live a good life after that point.

The passage that I found in the text represents the central idea and the outcome of George and Lennie’s overall goal of saving money and buying land. The passage “‘You’re (Candy) Nuts.’ Crooks was scornful. ‘I seen hunderds of men by on the road an’ on the ranches…an’ 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…Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head.’(76) ” represents  the theme of the story very well. This passage works well because it fits the theme that it is very unhopeful. What Crooks is saying seems to represent Steinbeck’s feelings toward these California workers. The theme is that one’s dreams can quickly become impossible and one can end up trapped in a place of loneliness.

The culture in Of Mice and Men is not too varied. It mostly focusses on the culture of the farm workers. The culture of these workers is simple. They are typical country types whose main goals are just to make a living. To them their goal is just to have land and a job, which is a goal someone like me does not relate to. Steinbeck used the characters in Of Mice and Men to represent the laborers of California and their struggles .George and Lennie are two men who are what Steinbeck might consider typical California farm worker during the early 1900’s, but with a unique and interesting dynamic between the two characters.

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Their dreams are very simple, but they are one of the only ideas these men have to give them hope. At the end of the story right before George killed Lennie, Lennie asked George to “Tell how it’s gonna be(105)”, and George explained the beautiful details of the land once more like he had done many times throughout the story, and Lennie was happy.

I did not find myself often relating this book to the a lot of the ones we have read so far this year, except for A Raisin in the Sun. Both of these works had a similar feature of dreams. The majority of Of Mice and Men is about how George and Lennie have a dream that they are going to purchase land and work to achieve their dream until the end of the story when it all falls apart. In A Raisin in the Sun, the characters in the story are often focused on their dreams of what they will do with the money. The poem at the beginning of A Raisin in the Sun fits Of Mice and Men in a way because both are about dreams and their struggle to become reality, with Of Mice and Men  being much more unhopeful than A Raisin in the Sun.

The tone of the story is overall very dark and negative. It gets a very dark tone because its theme is about the impossibility of the American dream and many of the characters in the story are angry and mean because of their situation. A lot of the characters in the story, such as Curly or Crooks at times were very unlikable. The reason they were angry was mostly because of the situation they were in. Crooks was treated terribly because he was black and did not get along well with most people at the ranch. Crooks taunted Lennie with the possibly of him being alone without George saying “Well s’pose, jus’s’pose e don’t come back.

What’ll you do then?(72).” Because the characters in the story are all unhappy with their lives as ranchers it gives the overall tone of the story a dark feeling. The ending also shifted greatly to being very sad, because George (Candy as well) is forced to give up their chance of achieving what they hope for, because Lennie once again made a mistake. Lennie’s mistake of killing Curly’s wife (also very dark) was this time unforgivable.

I really enjoyed this book. When I started reading it I was worried that I might be bored but once the story introduced George and Lennie and their somewhat unclear backstory of how they had been traveling together for a long time that I started to like it. I also really enjoyed the relationship between George and Lennie. I thought it was very unique, with Lennie being someone who is dumb but very kind, and George stuck with him but he really does care for him in the end. The ending of the book was what made it the most memorable to me. I thought it was a very powerful and surprisingly dark end, but it made the book very memorable.

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