Comparative Essay: Gatsby and Lennie from Of Mice and Men

Gatsby and Lennie from The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men, are similar in the way they both didn't get their dreams that they had been chasing; for years because of the people standing in their way. Both of these characters have American dreams that they have been chasing for years. Gatsby and Lennie always talked about their dream and told other people about their dream in hopes that they will achieve it but they ended up not because they died. Both of them dying go back to the fact that the American dream will never be achieved because of the people standing in the way. With Gastby, he didn't get to achieve his American dream because of Tom. Both Tom and Gastby wanted to be with Daisy. Gastby wanted to be with Daisy because they used to be in love years ago and he is trying to win her back from Tom. Tom and Gatsby were arguing about who should deserve Daisy and Tom claimed, “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (Fitzgerald 130). Tom prevented Gatsby from getting with his wife but with the enforcement that he will never be as good as him. Gatsby’s American dream revolves around Daisy, he believes that the only way to get Daisy is to be like the “Old Money” that resides on East Egg but also get the approval from the other people in East Egg. The reason for this is because Daisy lives in East Egg so Gatsby assumes that she would want higher status and a better life quality than what he could provide her originally when he was a soldier. Gatsby personally is trying to complete this task as he does have a bigger house than where he started and gets a lot of money from his bootlegging job, but his biggest obstacle is Tom. Tom has a persona of high class and got all his money from the generations before him so he lives a life of luxury and leisure. He also has a big effect on the other wealthy people around him which is something that he could use against Gatsby his whole life is to get their approval and attention. But as soon as Tom says 1 bad thing about him, his dream could be destroyed so that is why Gatsby has to be careful around him. They do not only have a rivalry in status but also with Daisy herself, Tom is Daisy's husband so he is an oblivious extremely difficult obstacle to get over but as explained before, he is a person of high power that can easily shatter all of Gatsby's dreams which is the biggest figure standing in Gatsby's way of obtaining his dream. There is a similar situation with Lennie, but the wall in his way is Curley, who is his boss's son. Lennie is a poor worker that travels from place to place to get money but he also has a structure of a bull, tall and lean. Sadly he is mentally up to par with other people his age which makes him very vulnerable but also makes it harder for him to work towards his goal. Lennie's American dream is to tend rabbits with his best friend, George, but to do this, they need at least 600 dollars which were difficult to earn during this time. Curley is a man of a shorter structure that gets easily threatened by men who are taller than him, which is why he personally attacks Lennie many times. Curly put up an intimidating face to Lennie and taunted him, right after he left, George said, “But this Curley better make no mistakes about Lennie '' (Steinbeck 26). Curley is the one standing in the way of Lennie’s dream. Curley is the son of the boss of the ranch so he is fully capable of getting rid of Lennie and making it a lot more difficult for Lennie to live on the ranch and earn money. Although Lennie really does not hold anything against Lennie, it is a pleasure of Curley to cause the pain of others that are threatening to him. This will then cause a problem later in the story because Lennie ends up killing Curley's wife which angers Curley rightfully so but Curley chooses to want to kill Lennie himself - possibly influenced by the fact he wants to prove his point that he can be stronger than a person taller than him. This leads to Lennie's death as Geroge did not want anyone else killing his best friend except for himself. Curley caused Lennie's death because Curley could have chosen to choose another punishment such as putting him in jail and putting a fine on him. But he never recognized Lennie did have a mental deficiency and accused him like he was a monster. This shows that the American dream is unattainable, no matter where you live or what you are aiming for, someone will always stand in the way of making people's dreams happen because of who the people are themselves, someone will always contradict someone else's dream. But it is not only people that counter other people, even the setting can influence the way that someone's path of life can go, which eventually adds to why American dreams are unattainable.