4th Quarter Book Portfolio

I read the book Of Mice and Men by John Stienbeck. It was written in 1937 following In Dubious Battle. This book is about two men who go from farm to farm working as farm hands. Although they have no money they still dream of owning their own house and land. They almost have until disaster hits, Lenny kills Curly's Wife. I think the theme is how impossible it is to accomplish the americian dream. It shows that safety, contentment and freedom are not found in this world.



The americain dream is an impossiblity because there is no safety, contentment, and freedom in this world. For example, Curly's wife wanted to be a movie star but her mother ruined all of her chances. So she marries Curly to escape from her but all she ends up doing is traping herself with Curly. Another example is George and Lenny's farm dream. They almost get the farm but then it gets taken away because of an accident. Candy dreams of just tending to the plants on George's farm just so can't get fired, but his dream is also taken away by the accident of Curly's wife's death. This theme shows that the Americain dream can only be a dream and not realilty.



This theme is most evident in the Great Depression. For example if our economy was safely stablized we wouldn't have had the Great Depression in the first place. Another example is during the Great Depression hardly anyone had any sort of contentment because noone had money. Also during this time no one could really be free because they had to go out and do jobs they didn't want to do so they could eat and survive. This shows that no matter how hard you try the Americian dream is impossible.

The theme of this book is that the americain dream is an impossiblity. The theme in this book shows how right when your about to succeed your dreams can be snatched away forever. The theme in history shows that in life there will always be a situation that destroys your chances of reaching the americain dream. This book shows a period of time where the americain dream was the farest out of reach which shows you how really bad it was at this time. To understand this theme is to no how hard it is to step up in the ranks of the world.