Of Mice and Men Theme of Visions of America

Of Mice and Men captures the feel of rural America during the Depression. Different outlooks are presented: the never-will-be starlet trying to make it to Hollywood, the isolated black man born and raised in California, a ranch full of men that like to go to whorehouses, play pool, and drink away their earnings, and men that are constantly bouncing from job to job just shy of making ends meet. The America of Of Mice and Men is populated with dreamers and strugglers. America is both a place of the outside, where the dreams of the characters could be fulfilled (Hollywood, a quiet ranch, pulp magazine pages) and a confined space of the inside (the ranch, Crooks’s little room, the barn) where dreams often dissipate into impossibilities.

1. In this story, is America the land of futility or opportunity?
2. Could this be a story about making it in a tough agricultural migrant town anywhere?
3. Is struggle and overcoming obstacles part of the American story?
4. Is it possible to achieve the American Dream without struggling?

The dream Lennie and George have isn’t about personal happiness – it’s about attaining the American Dream.

This novella argues that there is no single America. Rather, there are many different groups (women, blacks, farm workers, others), each with its own unique struggle.