American Dream and Discrimination

American Dream and Discrimination

        The Great Depression left three and a half million people homeless and unemployment rates were at an all time high of twenty-one percent.During this time people were eating spoiled foods out of trashcans and violence was inflicted on all people. The Great Depression was an ideal example that the American Dream was all but a myth and that not all Americans could achieve it. John Steinbeck, author of the novel Of Mice and Men, a story that takes place in California in the Salinas River during the Great Depression explains why it was not achievable. Steinbeck explains the main principle that the American Dream is not for all Americans, but rather only certain groups of people. The American Dream cannot be achievable for all Americans because it does not apply to the majority of Americans.

        To begin with, the character Crooks was used in the novel to reveal the discrimination against all African Americans. For Crooks, advancing in life and living out his dream was an impossible hope due to the discrimination. Steinbeck explains the discrimination against African Americans when Curley’s wife speaks to the Negro stable buck in his small cabin, “ ‘Well, you keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny’”(Steinbeck 81). Crooks slid back in his seat and was keeping silent and replied with a yes ma’am(Steinbeck 81).  Not only was Crooks, the stable buck, working on a farm for no salary and living in a minute cabin, but was also threatened when speaking out his opinion. Even if Crooks attempted to leave and make something of himself, the white men controlling the farm would keep him in the “chains” and not allow him to leave or he would be lynched. Therefore, Crooks has no hope whatsoever of even grasping of the American Dream. Furthermore, the time period prevented African Americans from even moving away from poverty but staying where “they belong”. Dr. M’Baye, who received his Ph.D. in American culture studies seems to agree with the fact that African Americans did not have an equal opportunity for the American Dream when he states, “In the early twentieth century […] black families sometimes encountered violence when they tried to move outside their growing ghettos”(M’Baye 2). Even if the African Americans did have the money or ability to move out of the poverty-stricken ghettos they still would encounter violence and were held back just like Crooks. After all, African Americans were not given the equal opportunity for accessing the American Dream; therefore not all Americans can achieve it.

        Furthermore, Curley’s wife was a prominent character in the novel that was used effectively to reveal the discrimination and subjugation of women. The American Dream was not even achievable for women in that they were always bound to the home and not even allowed the opportunity to go outside and experience the world alone. The discrimination of women occurred daily and hurt Curley’s wife especially when she feels like the men don’t “cares how I gotta live” and how she believes she “coulda made somethin’ of myself”(Steinbeck 88). Curley’s Wife is constantly confined to her home and always wants to go outside and talk to the men and experience the world. When she does come out she decides to speak out her true-life story to Lennie. She reveals the dream that she wishes she could have had, but was suddenly taken away when she married Curley. She wanted to become an actress and had talent, yet her mother would not let her and after marrying Curley he would keep her confined in his home. Curley’s wife was just one example, however during the Great Depression millions of women experienced this. Expert Elaine Abelson, Ph.D. in American History from Cornell University explains the subjugation in women in the Great Depression when she states,  “[…]women have been bound to the home by ideology, moral strictures, and idealized notions about motherhood and family”(Abelson 1). Not only was it seen in all homes but it was an ideology. Being bound to the home means women did not have access the world by themselves making it impossible for them to fulfill their American Dream. Therefore, women were not able to achieve their version of the American Dream not because they did not have the determination to, but because they were held back by society.