Of Mice and Men Dream Quotes

“An’ live off the fatta the lan’,” Lennie shouted. “An’ have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that George.”
“Why’n’t you do it yourself? You know all of it.”
“No…you tell it. It ain’t the same if I tell it. Go on…George. How I get to tend the rabbits.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 1. Lennie asks George to tell him about their dream farm, as they spend a night in the open air in the woods by the river before starting work at the ranch.
We'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens - John Steinbeck quote In Rain

“We’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof – nuts!

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 1. George talks to Lennie about his version of the American Dream, a place they can call their own where they have the freedom to work or not and come and go as they please. It is a dream that will never come to pass.

“All kin’s a vegetables in the garden, and if we want a little whisky we can sell a few eggs or something, or some milk. We’d jus’ live there. We’d belong there. There wouldn’t be no more runnin’ round the country and gettin’ fed by a Jap cook. No, sir, we’d have our own place where we belonged and not sleep in no bunk house.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 3. George to Lennie on the worker’s dream – a place of their own, where they feel they belong and do not have to leave.

“I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. How’d that be?”
George half-closed his eyes. “I gotta think about that. We was always gonna do it by ourselves.”
Candy interrupted him, “I’d make a will an’ leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, ’cause I ain’t got no relatives nor nothing.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 3. George is discussing his and Lennie’s plans for a place of their own, where they’re the boss. Candy, a sad and lonely figure who has lost his beloved pet dog, pleads for a place at the table.

George said wonderingly, “S’pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn thing.” Old Candy nodded in appreciation of the idea. “We’d just go to her,” George said. “We wouldn’t ask nobody if we could. Jus’ say, ‘We’ll go to her,’ an’ we would. Jus’ milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an’ go to her.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 3. A perfect example of the American dream. George is telling Lennie and Candy how, if they had their own piece of land, they could do whatever they wanted to do. Go to the ball game, the circus and wherever they pleased.

The stable buck went on dreamily, “I remember when I was little kid on my old man’s chicken ranch. Had two brothers. They was always near me, always there. Used to sleep right in the same room, right in the same bed – all three. Had a strawberry patch. Had an alfalfa patch. Used to turn the chickens out in the alfalfa on a sunny morning. My brothers’d set on a fence rail an’ watch ’em – white chickens they was.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 4. Crooks dreams about his ideal world, when he was a child on his father’s chicken ranch. Companionship and plentiful food are both parts of Crooks’ dream.
Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land - John Steinbeck quote In Heaven

“I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Everybody wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 4. A cynical Crooks on George and Lennie’s dream. He foresees their dream is going to end in eventual disappointment. What Crooks says can also be seen as a comment on the death of the American Dream.

“Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much. Jus’ som’thin’ that was his. Som’thin’ he could live on and there couldn’t nobody throw him off of it. I never had none. I planted crops for damn near ever’body in this state, but they wasn’t my crops, and when I harvested ’em, it wasn’t none of my harvest.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 4. Candy to Crooks about the farm worker’s dream of having his own place. But wealthy farms exploit poor itinerant farm workers, pay them low wages so they never have enough to buy their own farm.

“Awright,” she said contemptuously. “Awright, cover ‘im up if ya wanta. Whatta I care? You bindle bums think you’re so damn good. Whatta ya think I am, a kid? I tell ya I could of went with shows. Not jus’ one, neither. An’ a guy tol’ me he could put me in pitchers…” She was breathless with indignation. ” – Sat’iday night. Ever’body out doin’ som’pin’. Ever’body! An’ what am I doin’? Standin’ here talkin’ to a bunch of bindle stiffs – a n***** an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep – an’ likin’ it because they ain’t nobody else.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 4. Like most of the ranch hands Curley’s wife has dreams. She dreamed of being in showbusiness and movies. But being little more than Curley’s property, she could not pursue her ambitions and instead lives a life of loneliness and no freedom. The names she calls Crook, Candy, and Lennie represent her prejudice towards blacks, the elderly, and people with disabilities

Crooks called, “Candy!”
“Huh?”
“‘Member what I said about hoein’ and doin’ odd jobs?”
“Yeah,” said Candy. “I remember.”
“Well, jus’ forget it,” said Crooks. “I didn’ mean it. Jus’ foolin’. I wouldn’ want to go no place like that.”
“Well, O.K., if you feel like that. Goodnight.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 4. After Curley’s wife comes in and mocks the men’s dream of a farm, Crooks’s hope is broken and he realizes the dream is just a fantasy.

“I tell you I ain’t used to livin’ like this. I coulda made somethin’ of myself.” She said darkly, “Maybe I will yet.” And then her words tumbled out in a passion of communication, as though she hurried before her listener could be taken away. “I lived right in Salinas,” she said. “Come there when I was a kid. Well, a show come through, an’ I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’ let me. She says because I was on’y fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 5. Curley’s wife is focused on how different her life could have been if she had been an actress. Like George and Lennie, she too has dreams, though they are somewhat grander. And like for them, her dream is a form of escape for her from the difficulties of her life.

As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 5. This descriptive passes comes at the point in the novella when Curley’s wife’s body is discovered. The described “moment” – of time seeming to stop – is not only about Curley losing his wife, but also Lennie and George losing their dream. For it is the end of their lives as they know them.

“Then – it’s all off?” Candy asked sulkily. George didn’t answer his question. George said, “I’ll work my month an’ I’ll take my fifty bucks an’ I’ll stay all night in some lousy cat house. Or I’ll set in some poolroom til ever’body goes home. An’ then I’ll come back an’ work another month an’ I’ll have fifty bucks more.”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 5. Candy’s greatest fear – that the dream of owning land with companions is over. For George the slice of the American Dream is definitely gone, as he looks forward to a life of cat houses and pool rooms.
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