Of Mice and Men By John Steinbeck

The term "dreamer" is often used as a condescending word; however, dreams may be a necessary part to life. For many people dreams are a form of mental motivation. It is often hard for people to remain motivated without dreams. If you do not have dreams you have nothing to work for and nothing to look forward to in life. The book Of Mice and Men tells of three men who work hard to achieve their dream that was almost possible, but others did not believe that it would ever happen;

"I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads... 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. Just like heaven. Ever'body wants a little piece of lan'.

Lenny Kravitz for U2 360 Tour, Anaheim, 17 June 20...

Lenny's Cuban Restaurant

Of Mice and Men

I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land."

George, Lenny, and Candy are three hard working individuals with a motivating dream to keep them going from day to day. Their dream had brought them closer together and greatly strengthened their friendship. Their dream was to own their own piece of land, with a small house, fields, and rabbits. If they owned their own land they would no longer need to work for anyone else. They could live off the land and tend to the needs of their home and their rabbits. George wanted to tend to the land, Lenny wanted to tend to the rabbits, and Candy wanted to take care of the household. Because they had each other they felt they were different from the other men who work on ranches;

"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest Guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place.... With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don't have to sit in no bar room blowin' in our jack jus' because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us. "

Due to the fact that George, Lenny, and Candy were so motivated to accomplish their dream, they were determined not to let anything get in their way. George had told Lenny that if he did anything wrong he would not be able to get the rabbits he so desperately wanted. Lenny had gotten himself into an incriminating situation. He had hurt Curly's wife by pulling on her hair too hard. She began screaming as loud as she could. Lenny freaked out and did not know what to do. In a desperate attempt to stop her screaming he accidentally broke her neck, which caused her immediate death.

Lenny's actions had ruined the dream for all three of the men. George would not be able to work on his own field, Lenny would not be able to tend to any rabbits, and there wouldn't be a house for Candy to take care of. They had worked so hard to accomplish their dream and it had been taken away from them so quickly. All their hard work had been for nothing and until they envisioned a new dream they would not be as motivated as they were before their dream had been taken from them.

Without their dream these three men might have given up on life long before their dream had ended. Their dream had given them the motivation they needed to go on with their difficult lives. The men's dream could not have lasted as long as it had without their friendship being as strong as it was.