AMERICAN WALKABOUT:
A Journey Through Reality

     In a wise man's fantasy there are flaws, in a fool’s fantasy there are not, because that is reality. No one will ever mistake that ideology not being in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. A book that is about 2 dreaming men, one representing civility and the other representing hope, going through a horrid work camp during, I believe, the early to mid 1930s while the Great Depression rages on. Lennie is represented as a person that does not know how to be civilized, a little hard-headed, strong, stoic, and full of hope. George is a very helping, but pushy and mean person with a short fuse to his tantrum, but his civility and realism towards the story’s situation gives the reader expectation to his attitude early on. Most of the characters personalities in the work camp are based on their massive personal problems that reflect off the time of the setting, this gives both George and Lennie a sense of reality of the world they live in. With all of this being said, it is possible that this whole story is a metaphor of 2 men experiencing and going through reality and how it affects their “dream”.

     In the world there are many people out there with certain problems that have to be acknowledged and assisted. But in Lennie’s case, that is non-existent in his character. This is even noticed by Curley’s Wife, who says: “Don’t you think of nothing but rabbits?” (Steinbeck 89). Although that being said, there are a few instances where he seems to give into reality for a moment. An example of this is when he is talking to Crooks in his shed. But it is a matter of time until he starts to rave about rabbits and their dream farm. He does not understand and acknowledge other people's reasonings for their actions and struggles. His lack of civility is assisted by George, which makes George and Lennie perfect buddies as will be said. 

     It is said that to get somewhere in life you need to act serious and work hard. That phrase directly matches Georges personally, an energetic and ambitious fellow. But, mind you, he really seems to lack something that Lennie has a lot of, hope. Although I say that he lacks that mental trait, it is mostly at the most appropriate times. For example, after finding Curley’s Wife’s corpse Slim talks to George: “Slim went on, ‘Maybe like that time in Weed you was tellin’ about.' Again George nodded.” (96). At that point in the book he gives into the reality of the situation through his civility where he knows he can't keep going on like this. As a result of what Lennie unintentionally did all his dreams are lost in time, like tears in the rain. This will all lead up to the following events in the book.

     Loss of a loved one is a very hard thing to mentally digest. This is shown in an extremely strong and effective manner in the ending of the story. Although what Lennie has done to George, George still does not retire Lennie for personal reasons, instead from Lennies own pain and misery. He even went as far as to let him have his moment with the dream he wanted before killing him, as said by George: “Look acrost the river, Lennie, an’ I’ll tell you so you can almost see it.” (105). This is a turning point in George’s character. As I said before, these two characters mix well like peas and carrots. This is because they act off  hope and civility. Lennie gives a sense of hope to George and George gives a sense of civility to Lennie. So by eliminating Lennie it is a metaphor to show that George has fully succumbed to reality, and has no hope for his dream because it was like Lennie was his source of hope.

     The reality of this world is enough to crush one's dream. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, it has the best depiction of how reality is a killer to not only people’s dreams but our friends and ourselves. Lennie is a man full of hope, but does not understand reality and civility, causing his downfall. Since George has a sense of reality, he succumbed to it in the most necessary times, but although is unfortunate. At the end, George kills Lennie by shooting him, which shows how George has accepted the position he is in, that there is no more hope for his dream anymore. He is now no longer the George he was at the beginning of the story. This just goes to show how the reality of this world is cruel, ruthless, and cold-blooded at killing one’s dream.