1. Of Mice & Men Dreams

2. Robert Burns poem--
The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry." (go wrong) things don’t always turn out the way you hope, dream & plan for

3. Who has dreams? George & Lennie Curley’s wife Candy Crooks Curley?
Does Slim have a dream?
What did other workers dream of were they really any different?

4. What does this mean for the reader & characters?
The tragedy –
Who for?
Why?
a novel of defeated hope and the harsh reality of the American Dream
What does this mean for the reader & characters?

5. George and Lennie desperately cling to the belief that they are different from the other workers who drift from ranch to ranch because
Unlike the others, they have a future and each other
they all have dreams, and it is only the dream that varies from person to person

6. Curley's wife has already had her dream of being an actress pass her by and now must live a life of empty hope
Crooks- helplessness of the black American who struggles to be recognized – isolation, loneliness, no future
Crooks' hopelessness underlies that of George's and Lennie's, Candy's and Curley's wife's
Candy- the desperate loneliness of the old & unwanted, feeling useless with no future, family or security

7. What is Curley’s dream?
He wanted to be a boxer, still fancies his chances but knows he’ll never make it
so pushes the ranch hands around to make himself feel big & important,
typical little man syndrome!
His father is the Boss but he walks in his Dad’s shadows so pushes his weight around.
Expects to own the ranch one day but it’s not really enough for him.

8. All wanting to change the way they live and have something better.
Slim differs from the others in the fact that he does not seem to want something outside of what he has, he is not beaten by a dream
Slim seems to know that dreams lead to sadness – at the end he understands George shooting Lennie & how inevitable it was

9. Whose dream? George & Lennie-Page 33 & 34-
More developed details of the dream – pages 84,85,86
Page 87 - this is where Candy gets involved in the dream, wants to get involved, put money in
Page 109- Crooks shows an interest in the dream plan but goes back on it- why?
Page 111- Curley’s wife’s dream- she could have been in the movies, the ‘pitchers’ but it never happened-
Why?
Why did she give up & marry Curley? – this is a response point to discuss for extra marks!