“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 – nuts!
– John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men, Chapter 1. George talks to Lennie about his version of the American Dream, a place they can call their own where they have the freedom to work or not and come and go as they please. It is a dream that will never come to pass.