The main dream in of mice and men is land, it is at once wanted by all, and achieved by none, as crooks puts it, "Just like heaven ever' body wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody ever gets to heaven and nobody ever gets no land." During the book it is frustratingly close, George, Lennie and Candy seem to come so close to getting their land that they want, they nearly send the money out, but they never get there, they never quite make it.
The book takes place in the dusty slowness and confines of the ranch, a place stuffed full of small town men, destined to become nothing, no children, no future, just drifting, travelling around, working for their pay, and then going and spending it; but it the back of their minds, they are always thinking that they would like to have some land, to settle down, and to make themselves a real life, with their own house, not some dusty bunkhouse, that is whitewashed and unpainted, in which other men leave behind bits and bobs that they forget.
Lennie James
Lennie James
Lennie JamesThey want a place of their own, a place that they won't ever have to leave again, a place in which they own the food that they pick, that they labour and sweat on.
Even Lennie, whose childlike, simple mind fails to grasp much, share this dream, he wants to tend the rabbits, he wants to be responsible for something, and it is the one thing that drives his life, in the barn or when Curley's wife tries to talk to him, he responds with, "George won't let me tend the rabbits" it is his main fear, that he won't be able to tend the rabbits.
He knows the story...