“I seen hunderds 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. Hunderds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ 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. Everybody wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head.”
– John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men, Chapter 4. A cynical Crooks on George and Lennie’s dream. He foresees their dream is going to end in eventual disappointment. What Crooks says can also be seen as a comment on the death of the American Dream.