La perception du rêve américain dans "The Great Gatsby"

The American Dream in literature

How is the American Dream portrayed in both Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby ?

Word count: 4,346

IB English Language and Literature

Higher Level

GNL 573

“The American Dream is that any man or woman, despite of his or her background, can change their circumstances and rise as high as they are willing to work.” (Fabrizio Moreira). In both Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the protagonists demonstrate a different side of the American Dream and what it means depending on their role in society and what social group they are a part of. The concept of the American Dream was an important source of inspiration for authors in the mid twentieth century and brought a new way of writing about social classes. The concept of the American Dream has been prominent since the time America was settled; as it says in the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal and that they endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”

However, the climax of the American Dream started in the 1920’s at the beginning of Prohibition movement. From 1920 to 1933 the United States decided on a constitutional ban on the production, importation and transportation of alcoholic beverages. This decision led to much controversy in the country but created a new business in the black market. Many wealthy men decided to use their money to secretly import alcohol and sell it at a price way above the reasonable one, thus making more money for their personal funds. The American Dream was the idea that anyone could achieve their dream - mostly related to wealth and success in their profession - if they were willing to work hard enough; it was the myth of class equality and that nothing could stop anyone. The 1920’s was the economic boom in Wall Street and had a rosy view of America, which ignored social issues such as misogyny, xenophobia, racism or income inequality. But regardless of what the negative idea of the American Dream was hiding, it has been a constant source of inspiration for authors, directors and painters for two decades. John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men was published in 1937 and takes place in post Great Depression Southern California, whereas The Great Gatsby was published in 1925 and takes place in West Egg, Long Island pre Great Depression. Even though the two novels were written pre and post the 1929 economic crisis, they both represent the ideal of the American Dream, the difficulty in realizing it, and how it can easily fall apart. The following essay will focus on the historical and cultural context in which the novels Of Mice and Men and The Great Gatsby were written and how the contexts motivate the authors to write about dreams and disappointments.

The novel Of Mice and Men written by Steinbeck is the story of two men in 1937, one of them, George, is small, wiry and has sharp features and takes care of his friend Lennie who’s quite the opposite of George: he is large, awkward and suffers from mental disabilities. The beginning of the book starts near a lake; the two men are running away from a town called Weed because Lennie held on too tight on the dress of a woman, therefore scaring her she was going to be assaulted. They are going to a new town, where they have a job promised on a farm. The two men share a common dream throughout the book; they want to buy land and build a farm on it, “O.K. Someday—we're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres and' a cow and some pigs and—” (Steinbeck 13). The author portrays Lennie’s and George’s dream as accessible during the first half of the book: the idea that two men from the working class could at any time save up money to buy land and live on it is the definition of the American Dream. Steinbeck decides to give hope to his protagonists and allows the reader to picture a joyful future for the two men along with the rest of the character.

Lennie and George, when arriving on the farm, meet the rest of the workers and allow themselves to share their dream and listen to the dreams of others. Each character has a dream of his/her own, and this decision from the author is to directly create a reaction from the readers. Each character’s goals and dreams are very personal and reflect highly on the personality of the characters, therefore creating an idealization of this concept that anyone can achieve anything. The owner of the farm Curley and his wife are the representation of crushed dreams in the novel, which sets Steinbeck’s ambiance.. Curley’s wife had always dreamed to be a Hollywood actress, but when she married Curley, this dream fell apart, “I get lonely, she said, you can talk to people but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?”. (need page number) Through this quote the author wants to create empathy in the readers; Curly’s wife is a lonely woman and disappointed in her marriage; Steinbeck’s decision to portray an unhappy marriage in his book also refers to a broader social issue that happened after the Great Depression. While men were trying to restore the economic status of the United States, women were left alone, dreams crushed and marriages destroyed. Along with her dream were the dreams of many workers such as Candy who wants to join Lennie’s and George’s dream of owning and tending to their own land, “Maybe if I give you guys my money, you’ll let me hoe in the garden even after I ain’t no good at it” (Steinbeck 60). Candy represents the working class during this time; he is an old man who has lived his entire life working for others without thinking of what he could achieve for himself. The idea of hope given by George demonstrates how the American Dream was spreading amongst every American, regardless of social class. The hope represents the main characteristic of the dream; whether you are a steel worker, farmer or growing actress there is always hope to rise into a higher social class, which is what most people dreamed of at the time. The feeling if hope is what created The American dream, the more hope they had, the harder they would work thus improving their quality of life: it is an ongoing cycle.

Nonetheless, Steinbeck didn’t allow Lennie, George or Candy to dream long, the reader can understand from section three of the book that each dream will slowly disintegrate and the reality of life will remind the workers

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