George and Lennie dream of buying a patch of land of their own to use as a farm—a farm where they’ll build a self-sustaining life and “live off the fatta the lan.” Their hypothetical farm represents the failures of the American Dream, an especially dark reality given the Depression-era setting of the novella, when dreams of peace, stability, and harmony were the only things keeping most people going. George and Lennie’s farm is a pipe dream from the start—it is a “scheme” destined to go awry and leave “nought but grief an’ pain” in its wake. Candy, an old man they meet at their ranching job, is also swept up in the idea of the farm and is willing to contribute his savings to secure the land. But, sure enough, George and Lennie never get to see the farm come to fruition—George’s habit of irresponsibly spending all of his earnings, as well as Lennie’s death at the end of the story, ensure that their dream will never happen. George even admits to Candy that he knew the farm would never pan out, despite his daydreaming. The farm is thus a symbol of an unattainable fantasy of paradise and plenty whose only purpose is to keep those generating the fantasy alive—and remotely hopeful—in the midst of a time defined by struggle, failure, and scarcity.
George and Lennie’s Farm Quotes in Of Mice and Men
“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. […] With us it ain't like that. We got a future.”
[…] Lennie broke in. “But not us! An’ why? Because...because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.”
“Well,” said George, “we'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we'll just say the hell with goin' to work, and we'll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an' listen to the rain comin' down on the roof.”
“We could live offa the fatta the lan'.”
“S'pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn thing." Old Candy nodded in appreciation of the idea. "We'd just go to her," George said. "We wouldn't ask nobody if we could. Jus' say, 'We'll go to her,' an' we would. Jus' milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an' go to her.”
“I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads [. . .] every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever'body wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.”
“I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would.”
George and Lennie’s Farm Symbol Timeline in Of Mice and Men
