Do you remember your first dream when you were a little kid, a dream to be an astronaut, a cowboy, or a race car driver? Well, everyone has had a dream or a hope that didn't come true. In John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men, the characters are full of broken dreams and lost hopes. This book takes place on a ranch in Soledad, California in the1930's during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a time when America seemed to be built on lost dreams, pain, and suffering. One of the central themes to this novel is the idea of the American Dream, and of its downfall as a tangible possibility.

During the Depression many people wanted so badly to live out the American Dream and live off of their hard work that they were forced to sell off whatever they had so that they...