Society has a big impact on what people accomplish in their day to day life. Society says the American Dream is having a good education and job, be successful, have a family, or have lots of money. Most people have a particular idea of what they want in life, but never follow through with it. The books Of Mice and Men, Death of a Salesman, and various poems, help show what the American Dream is.
In the books Of Mice and Men the character George Milton and Death of a Salesman the character Biff Loman both have this idea of an American Dream, they both want freedom. George wants freedom from people telling him what he can and can not fulfill, “An’ it’d be our own, an’ nobody could can us” (Steinbeck 59). George is talking to Lennie his ‘brother’ he is saying that they are going to get their own land and when they buy it, no one is going to tell them how to work. George likes being his own man, “If we don’t like a guy we can say, ‘Get the hell out,’ and by God he’s got to do it”( Steinbeck 59). George likes being the boss, knowing he has the control of what he wants to happen . He always wants to finish this dream he made, but at the end of the book he says, “— I think I known from the very first. I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to her about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would” (Steinbeck 95). George is talking about how he eventually built up this dream and he could actually get this dream done, but he also knew in the back of his head that he would never fulfill their dream.
George is not the only character with the dream of having freedom, Biff Loman also wanted freedom. He had many jobs and never stuck around very long at any of them. “Listen, why don’t you come out West with me?… Sure, maybe we could buy a ranch. Raise cattle, use our muscles. Men built like we are should be working out in the open” (Miller 12). He doesn’t want to work for another man anymore, he wants to work for himself. He is making a dream to work with his brother because he does not know what else there is to take on.
Like George and Biff other characters had their ideas of American Dreams. Crooks is one of these characters, he wants acceptance and he wants to be ‘wanted’, “Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’d with you” (Steinbeck 72). Crooks is a colored man and he didn’t get to be like the guys. He had his own place by himself, because no one wanted to be with him. When Lennie and Candy tell Crooks about their dream of owning land, Crooks tells them “You guys is just kiddin’ yourself… Hell, I seen too many guys”(Steinbeck 76). He always saw guys come through talking about buying land but never finishing it, when Candy told Crooks they had the money to buy the land he was surprised, “I never seen a guy really do it.” (Steinbeck 76). Once Crooks realized they could accomplish it he wanted to be apart of it, “… If you… guys would want a hand to work for nothing— just his keep, why I’d come an’ lend a hand. I ain’t so crippled I can not work like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to” (Steinbeck 76). Crooks never saw someone who could actually buy land, but once he heard they could he wanted to be apart of it because he didn’t want to be the outsider anymore he wanted to be wanted Crooks had his own idea of what his American Dream was, he wanted acceptance.
In the poem Let America be America Again their are two man, one man talks about how America is great, while the other man talks about how horrible it is. The second man tells the first about everything that his wrong and all the people who work. “I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean— Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, the poorest worker barred through the years” (Hughes 31-38). He never earned what the other people got because he was not like the others. He wasn’t like other people, so he related to Crooks. He needed to be accepted, he needed people to show him some kind of kindness.
Crook is another character that had a contrasting idea of an American Dream. Candy from the book Of Mice and Men had his own idea of what his dream was. Candy over heard George and Lennie talking about their dream once he heard it he wanted to be apart of it too. “I ain’t much good with on’y one hand. I lost my hand right here on this ranch. That’s why they give me a job swampin’. . . S’pose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in. I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some” (Steinbeck 59). Candy wanted to be useful he didn’t want to just swipe he wanted to help and be useful. He was ready to give all of his money to guys he just met so he could be useful and helpful.
There are many of characters who wanted to be useful, one of this characters was a boy from the poem Out, Out. In the poem their is a young boy who had an accident on the farm, they took him get it fixed. When he was at the hospital he told his sister, “Don’t let him cut my hand off—The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!” (Frost 25 and 26). He didn’t want to have his hand cut off because he knew if it was he would no longer be useful. Though he tried his best, the doctor had to cut it off, “The doctor put him in the dark of the ether. He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath” (Frost 28 – 29). They doctor knew the boy could no longer keep his hand, but eventually there want anything he could arrange to help him. “They listened to at his heart. Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it” (Frost 31- 32). The boy passed away because there nothing they could do. The boy was no longer useful to the others, “And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs” (Frost 33 and 34). The rest of the people went on with what they were doing because there was no one left to look after so they left to go back to their work.
Everyone has a particular idea of what their American Dream is, some people want freedom, others want acceptance, and some people just want to be useful. People are unique and want various things, but at the same time people very similar. They all want something out their life, that they want not what society says should happen.
Work Cited
Frost, Robert. Out, Out—. Poetryfoundation.org. 30 October 2017. Web.
Hughes, Langston. Let America be America Again. Poetryfoundation.org. 30 October 2017. Web.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Penguin, 1998
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. Penguin, 1993.