"People are so busy dreaming the American Dream, fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be, that they're all asleep at the switch. Consequently we are living in the Age of Human Error. " (King, Florence. ) Is this statement not showing the reality of the world during the time of the Great Depression? The American Dream was created with the promise of land, success, and prosperity. It gave the people of America the hope to believe that they can achieve anything they dream to be.
As the forefathers of the Declaration of Independence had said, "It constitutes life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. " This has all changed after the Depression. Of course the statement above is true! How could you obtain something so irrationally absurd at a time where there i
...s nothing! John Steinbeck, author of the book Of Mice and Men, wrote about this universal thought. The works To a Mouse and Of Mice and Men claim that the American Dream is always unsuccessful and will only bring disappointment and devastation through the experiences of characters ND/or comparable objects or organisms.
Robert Burns, author of To a Mouse, used a mouse's success after a tragic accident to show that dreaming and over-thinking will often cause failure. A mouse is a productive creature. Since its mind is so small, it does not think, its relies on instinct. This is why they are so successful in survival. Mankind Santos 2 does the exact opposite. Robert Burns understood this and explained, "l backward cast my eye on prospects turned to sadness! And though forward I cannot see, I guess
and fear! " Mankind is nothing at all productive.
Robert Burns knew that unmans tend to over-think before acting. They think of every possibility of failure and every possibility of success and then dwell on these thoughts so much that they lose their sight of success and then fail. Because of this, they are blinded with their doubts and dreams. As a result, the reality and actual possibility of success is lost. Not only does dreaming and heavy thinking lead to failure, it also shows that "the best laid schemes of mice and men oft go awry and leave us nothing but grief and pain instead of promised Joy! Burns explains that no matter how long a person could spend planning and exacting every single detail in a quest to fulfill a dream, it will always result in dreadful pain and unhappiness. To a Mouse ends its perspective with thoughts that dreaming and heavy thinking will bring failure and pain from the loss of promised Joy. Such philosophical statements are similar to that of the piece Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck writes about the fundamental viewpoint that the American Dream brings nothing but false hope, failure, and devastating results through the experiences of Leonie, George, and Curler's Wife in Of Mice and Men.
Curler's Wife pent most of her life on the ranch in lonely isolation and unhappiness. She had one of those extremely impossible American dreams. Most of her life she dreamed of becoming a famous actress, touring with shows. For the longest time she dwelt on the two chances she had in life to become one. The first when she was fifteen,
an actor had told her that she could go and tour towns with his show but her mother didn't let her. The other with a man who promised her a letter writing to her about her career. She was twice fed with the possibilities of achieving her dream, but then sorely let down.
She had told Leonie, "l don't like Curler. He anti a nice fell. Could been in the movies, an' had nice clothes- all them nice clothes like they wear... Because Santos 3 this guy says I was a natural. " Clearly, her dream is holding her back. The dream brought nothing but failure. She can't even be happy anymore because all she can think about is what she would've had, what she would've been, and how wonderful it would have been if she achieved the dream that falsely gave her hope. Any woman not weighted down by the American dream would immediately realize how much Curler's Wife takes for granted. She doesn't have to work.
She doesn't have to struggle to feed herself. She doesn't have to worry about anything a middle-class woman or lower would have to deal with during the Great Depression. That alone can show how a dream will only bring pain, disappointment, and grief. Leonie and George also had a dream. They were going to own acres and acres of land. They were going to own a ranch with cows, a pig, chickens, and rabbits that Leonie would tend. They were so close to achieving their goal with the money they gathered to buy the land! John Steindler purposefully ended with George having to do the most retraining
irreversible.
He described it as "the hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. " Leonie ended up dying in the end! The dream had failed of course. Just as the intricately formulated plan of buying the land had been formed, in Just a snap of the neck and shoot of the gun, it perished under the worst of results. John Steindler incorporated his thoughts of the American dream with these outcomes; Curler's Wife spent the rest of her life unhappily dwelling on the 'what-ifs' of her dream and George tragically lost Lien's life and heir dream.
Both pieces show the tragic negative results that occur because of the American Dream. Of Mice and Men and To a Mouse inherently explain the success of instinct before thought and the tragic occurrences that will always take place because of the American Dream and the false hope it gives its victims. It is only inferred that you must give up a dream, as George had done in the end, in order to obtain happiness, success, and true appreciation for what is already given in life, because obviously the American Dream does nothing but create expectations that are never able to be made.
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