Life in America during the 1930s was very harsh. This period was a very difficult one for working people, suffering from vast unemployment and struggling for a better life and a better job. At that time America was suffering a lot. The economy showed no sign of turning around. The country’s largest companies had to close. The banking system collapsed and many factory workers, miners and farmers were left unemployed and in many cases penniless. People were suffering a lot with nothing to eat and almost nowhere to live.
At that time men wanted to be self-sufficient. They wanted to be independent and live life the way they wanted. That is why many people dreamt to have a piece of land that was theirs, to grow their own crops and have people work for them. Like many workers in that era, George and Lennie shared the American dream, “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.” By achieving this dream, “there wouldn’t be no more runnin’ round the country.” They aspire to have a little happiness, a permanent job and therefore have a more stable future not working only at bucking barley, “No, sir we’d have our own place where we belong and not sleep in no bunk house.”
George longs for the day where he can enjoy his well deserved freedom and live in a safe place with Lennie away from people like Curley and Curley’s wife that bring only trouble and mischief. Lennie is largely responsible for George's belief in this safe haven, but eventually the predatory nature of the world asserts itself and George can no longer maintain that belief. His hopes for a better future vanish with Lennie when he shots him at the back of his neck sparing his friend the merciless and brutal death that would await him from Curley. All the dreaming and fantasizing of both George and Lennie brings...