The Different Uses of Power to Achieve the American Dream

According to oxford language definitions The American dream is defined as “the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved.”.While characters and individuals in both the book and movie are of lower social classes, they do not let this lack of societal power keep them from achieving their dreams and they use a different type of power in order to push through societal obstacles in order to achieve their dreams. as can be seen when  curley's wife doesn't let him controlling her stop her from trying to reach her american dream . Principal friestleben uses her power to influence the kids to achieve their dreams. George telling Lennie what to do and controlling him to help him achieve . 

For the first example curley's wife is being controlled by him. They got married on the first day they met. So she could get away from her mom. She settled for him because the man that was going to take her to hollywood did not send her the letter that would have made her a hollywood star. Curley's wife's American dream is to go to Hollywood to become a famous actress. And how us the reader figures that out is this line she says. “ He said he was going to put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon as he got back to Hollywood he was going to write to me about it”(-Steinbeck 88). And from reading the book and learning more about her as a character you see that all she wants is to be surrounded by good friends. But she needs to get away and escape from curly who is controlling her life. She tries to achieve her dream and get away from her husband but she ends up getting her neck snapped by lennie. So her dreams were stopped there.

For the second example. Principal Frestleban goes by the saying love them first. Lucy laney elementary school is an underprivileged school in which 90%  of the student body is black and are living in poverty. The school is in North Minneapolis. Every year they have to send out a letter that says. They are in the lowest 5% of underperforming schools in the United states. It breaks her heart every time. Because it's devastating to tell people that even though the kids are trying their best they just can't perform to the standard to not make the list.  But she doesn't let that stop her from giving the kids a good schooling. She tries her hardest to make sure they are teached as best as they can be. One of the things she practices is treating  the kids like family. She dishes out a stern but fair punishment with them. When one of the kids steps out of line or misbehaves. She fairly disciplines them and listens to their side of the story. Mr.Mcdonald is one of the teachers at lucy laney. He has an interesting way of helping students. He lets them box. He gives them boxing gloves and they go crazy on the bag to let out their steam. The point that is trying to be shown is. The teachers at Lucy Laney elementary school do not let the societal restrictions and limitations they have. Stop them from helping the students be their best selves. 

For the third example. George controles Lenny and helps him through life. Lenny is one of the two main characters in Of Mice and Men.  He is special, in the story we see that he doesn't know how to react in certain situations. For an example from the text “Uh-uh. Just a dead mouse, George. I didn't kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it dead.”      (Steinbeck-5). What happens is Lenny likes the little animals because they are soft. But when he picked up the baby mouse it got scared and bit him. And with Lenny not understanding how to respond he squashed its head to get it to stop. But what George does throughout the story is help Lenny and tell him what to do so he doesn't make mistakes like that or worse. Also George helps Lennie by finding work the reader sees when George says this “that ranch we are going to is right down there about a quarter mile. We're gonna go in and’ see the boss… you just’ stand there and don't say anything. If he finds out what  crazy bastard you are, we won't get a job. But if he sees ya work before you talk, weŕe set.``(Steinbeck-6). George helps Lennie so much so that  they can save up for their dream, Which is living in a little house with a nice patch of land. So they can get away from everyone and everything to just relax and vibe. But in the end Lenne gets in a situation where he grabs Curley's wife's hair and doesn't let go. And in doing so she freaks out and he just keeps grabbing tighter. To get her to stop screaming Lennie snaps her neck, killing her on the spot. Lennnie is overcome with fear and sadness. So he runs away. When the people on the farm everyone knew it was lennie. They all want to kill lennie. But George can't let them kill his friend. In the end George finds Lennie at the river bank from the opening of the book. George could hear the voices of the angry men running up to them to protect his best friend from what the mob was going to do to him. George raises his gun and ends Lennie's life so he doesn't get beaten and killed in a cruel way by the men. So even in the end the gorge was looking out for lennie. 

All in all the characters and people throughout the book and movie. They were held back by their societal class. But they did not let that stop them from trying to achieve their american dream. Even though some of the don't reach they tried their hardest to get it and didn't let their social class stop them.