Of Mice and Men Character Analysis
Uploaded by masone4718 on Nov 28, 2004
“The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.” This statement explains a major theme in the novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. Everyone has dreams, and the characters in the novel are no different. But sometimes these dreams and aspirations can be shattered. The theme of broken dreams reoccurs in this novel through many characters, such as Lennie, George, Candy and Crooks.
Lennie and George are two migrant workers who never seem to be able to fulfill their dream of owning a little patch of land. George and Lennie cling to their belief that they are different from other workers because they have a future and each other. George and Lennie’s dream of owning a farm would enable them to work for themselves and to relinquish them of an inhospitable world. This dream of “living off the fatta the lan’” obviously cannot be accomplished because Lennie was a burden to George and anyone who was friends with him. George and Lennie’s hopes of owning a couple of acres are shattered when George shoots Lennie because he realizes that their dream will never turn to reality when he understands that Lennie is someone who is of no help to anyone, even to his lifelong companion.
Another character whose dreams are ruined is Crooks. Crooks is an African-American doomed to spend his life in oppression. Crooks dreams of being recognized as a human being, just a normal person who has a place of his own. He wants to live in a world of bliss and to have the freedom to follow his own desires. Crooks’ has been robbed of his hopes for this life since the start because of the oppression of the African-American in his lifetime.
A final character whose ambitions are never achieved is Candy. Candy is a sweet old man who appears to want to live in a kinder world than the one he is living in now. Candy’s latches on to George and Lennie’s dream of owning a little patch of land. Candy just wants to abandon this harsh reality, which he lives in. Candy is so strongly committed to this dream that even after Lennie kills Curley’s wife he begs to George that the both of them buy the farm. Candy’s dream can never be completed because George...