What happens to George and Lennies dream at the end of the book?

John Stienbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” is about the death of the American dream. George, Lennie and Candy’s dream is to own their own piece of land to work and live independently on. This dream is destroyed by Lennie’s ignorance and Lennie’s strength, which he cannot control. Curley’s wife’s dream is to be a famous Hollywood actress. Her dream is destroyed by her marriage to Curley and the Hollywood director who promised to contact her about her acting career but never has. Crook’s dream is for equality. Racism and the attitudes of others destroy this dream. Lennie and George’s dream is to own a piece of land to work and live where they can have cows, pigs, chicken a vegetable patch with alfalfa and rabbits. “O.K Someday – we’re going…show more content…
Because Lennie is confused he grabs her hair and tries to make her stop yelling. But because Lennie does not know how to control his own strength, he squeezes Curley’s wife’s neck too hard and crushes her spine. Lennie then flees the ranch because Curley wants to kill him for what he did to his wife. So Lennie is not brutally murdered by Curley, George finds Lennie and, because he cannot get him out of trouble, shoots Lennie. Lennie’s uncontrollable strength and ignorance destroyed his, George and Candy’s dream Curley’s wife’s dream is to become a famous Hollywood actress. She dreams of fame, fortune, fancy clothes and large, expensive hotels. Curley’s wife is waiting for a Hollywood director to mail her about becoming an actress. This dream is destroyed by her marriage to Curley because once she is married she is not allowed to pursue an acting career because she has to look after the house, because Curley will not allow her to leave the ranch to become an actress. Her dream is also destroyed by a Hollywood director who believed she had the potential to become a film actress. Curley’s wife meets this director at a dance and he promises he would send her a letter about acting in one of his films, but she never gets the letter so she does not become an actress which is her dream. Her marriage to Curley and the Hollywood director who has not mailed her about her acting career destroys her dream. Crooks dream is to be equal.

Despite hard work, dreams don't always come true. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie work hard, but in the end, their dreams didn't come true. They both have a dream of owning a small farm with land and animals, where no one's in charge of them and they can do what they want. Throughout the story they both work hard at their jobs and try to stay out of trouble. But in the end, their dreams didn't come true despite their efforts. George and Lennie have always had a dream to own a place of their own where nobody would be the boss of them, so they could “live off the fatta the lan”(56). Because Lennie held onto the girl's dress and made a huge misunderstanding, both Lennie and George got into a lot of trouble so …show more content…
First, they work hard to look for a job after they had to flee Weed. There wasn't a lot of jobs available during the depression so it must have taken a while to find a job and then to travel all the way to the ranch. This is when George says, “I bet it was more than four miles. Damn hot day”(4). They were determined to get to the ranch because they walked four miles on a boiling day instead they could have just gone somewhere else and not show up for their job. Also, when they were at the ranch they worked hard at their job. They had to “buck barley bags”(23) which were not light: they weighed up to 218 pounds! And they had to buck barley all day every day. Imagine doing that all day for months. Also, throughout their job they saved up their money, unlike other men who would waste it and spend it at cat houses and alcohol. When George says, “Me an’ Lennie’s rollin’ up a stake”(53) It means that they're saving up their money unlike when Slim says, “You oughtta come in town with us guys tomorra night”(52). Which shows that the rest of the guys are going to go into town and spend their money instead of saving it. George also worked hard to keep Lennie out of trouble, and that takes a lot of work. Such as when George says to Lennie,”You try to keep away from him, will you? Don't never speak to him. If he comes in here you move clear to the other side of the room”(29). George is trying to …show more content…
We knew the exact moment in the book that their dream wouldn't be able to happen anymore, just because of an accident with Curley’s wife, “and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck”(91). This was the moment we knew that Lennie couldn't go back from this mistake. That no one would forgive him for this, and that he couldn't run from an accident as bad as this one. When George is talking to Lennie by the pond and he's about to shoot him, he's talking about how they're going to the farm right now saying, “You...an’ me”(106). Showing us George's hesitation means that he knows that he's not going to be there with Lennie. Then the moment George decided to kill Lennie, is when knew the dream wouldn't go on without him. Because this whole dream had been including the both of them and had started with them. They planned it together and they were supposed to do it

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Lennie’s death conclusively demonstrates one of the novella’s central ideas: according to the rules of the American economy, the weak and vulnerable cannot survive. At the end of Of Mice and Men, George spares Lennie from Curley’s wrath by shooting Lennie in the back of the head after reciting their shared dream of owning a farm one final time. Because George is forced to kill his friend himself, Lennie’s death is not only the death of a single vulnerable person, but also the destruction of a rare and idealized friendship. Throughout the novella, George and Lennie have viewed themselves as special and lucky because they have their friendship with one another, but in the end, all this means is that George must be the person to kill Lennie. This conclusion suggests that for the poorest and most isolated people, lasting friendship is a dream as cruelly unattainable as land ownership.

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