Mice and men is pessimistic
Mice and men is pessimisticThe main theme that runs throughout the novel is that of hope. Everyone on the ranch has their own personal dream that they wish to fulfil, although no one does. The main reason for this is probably that the workers do not save money, and prefer to live for the moment, and go to “cat houses” to get their fulfilment. Although this is not the case with Crooks or Curley’s wife, they can never accomplish their dream because of their skin colour and sex.
“Were gonna have a little house and a couple of acres,” this indicates that George has always had his dream, even before he got the job on the ranch. George’s dream is not only to own his own land, but also to be his own boss. This desire is probably what kept George going for so long, although it is evident that George realises this is an unlikely dream as long as Lennie is around. This is the case until Candy overhears George talking about the dream, and decides to get involved. Once this happens, George breaks free of his usual routine and begins saving money.
This dream is perhaps the most prominent feature of the novel, and even the cynical Crook’s, who has dreams of his own, believes in this dream for a while. To begin with Crooks is scornful towards Lennie when talking about the dream, “You’re nuts,” he said, and he dismissed the dream as being the normal dream of all the itinerant ranch hands. However, once Crooks hears more about this dream, he begins to believe in it, and sees it as a way out of his prejudice, and boring life. Crooks’s dream is that of independence and freedom, and he hopes to use knowledge to obtain this dream. “Crooks possessed…books too,” reading is the only thing he can do, because of his skin colour.
Crooks becomes increasingly excited by this dream of freedom once he realises it is a way of escaping the racist society that he lives in. He is not allowed to live in the ranch house with the white people, and instead he is forced to live in an unstable shack next to a manure pile. However, after a while Crooks realised that this dream was impossible, because in order to achieve it, he would have to dive into a society of men who see him as nothing more than an underclass citizen. Crooks is finally put in his place when Curly’s wife says, “I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.” This is when Crooks realises that he cannot possibly achieve his dream because there are to many threats and...
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