John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men deals with the plight of migrant laborers in California during the Great Depression, with the focus on two random migrant workers, George and Lennie. The first chapter sharply establishes the relationship between the two primary characters. George is by necessity a rational realist who must care for the simplistic and child-like Lennie. George consistently scolds and reprimands Lennie for his actions, while Lennie strives to please and placate George. Throughout the novel, Of Mice and Men, almost all of the characters have a constant dream and vision that they are searching for and this provides them with the strength and comfort to keep on living. The only character who does not have a dream is Slim. He is content with his life situation and can envision working on the ranch for the rest of his life. George and Lennie share their dream of one-day owning a farm, although the reader senses that this will never be fufilled because of the circumstances.
Dreams and visions are shared by the majority of the characters in the novel, but the aspiration that is perceived and known by most readers is the one shared with George and Lennie. In the first chapter Lennie asks George to tell him about the rabbits. George tells him the story which he has told Lennie many times: men like George and Lennie that work on ranches are the loneliest individuals in the world, with no family and no home, but they have each other. Someday they're going to raise enough money to have a small farm. They will have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch. Throughout the story, Lennie and George both work hard so that they can someday purchase their own small farm. This dream comforts both George and Lennie in different ways. For George, it makes the world's cruel aspects of reality fade away and it allows him to dwell on something other than his life at the ranch. For Lennie, it is merely a fantasy in his head and he cannot wait until the day he can touch the soft rabbits and tend to them.
