Of Mice and Men

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Of Mice and Men

• What you should know

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Context

• When the novel is set
• Historical/social factors that are relevant to
  the time it is set
• Where the novel is set and why
• How the context affects the plot, characters and
  themes
• Could you answer the question How are the ranch
  workers affected by the context of the story?

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Relationships
Great Depression
California
Migrant/itinerant workers
No Help Wanted
Ranches
No benefits
Mass unemployment
1930s
American Dream
Real places
Racism/inequality
Dreams
Hunger
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The title

• Alliterative connection between mice and men
  both subject to fate
• Context of title gives biggest clue as to
  tragedy/pessimism for the dream
• The best laid schemes o mice and men
• Gang aft a-gley (often go wrong)
• Struggle for survival in Burns poem hints at
  vulnerability and helplessness of characters
• Could you answer the question What is the
  significance of the title?

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Plot

• Know the story inside out ie. READ and RE-READ
• Write detailed summaries of each of the six
  chapters so you know exactly when all the main
  events take place
• Consider what we learn about the past and the
  future in each section

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When did it happen?

• Lennie breaks Curleys wifes neck
• Candy shows them around the bunkhouse
• Lennie goes to the brush, as instructed by George
• Lennie has a dead mouse in his pocket
• Candys dog is shot
• All the men go into town except Crooks, Candy and
  Lennie

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Characters

• Physical description
• Personality and behaviour
• What events/themes they are involved in
• What role they play/their importance
• Relationships with other characters
• What they say/what others say about them
• Use of language
• Could you answer the question It is possible to
  feel sympathy for all the characters in the
  novel. Which of the characters do you feel most
  sympathy for?

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Candy
Carlson
Whit
Lennie
George
The Boss
Curley
The pups
Curleys wife
Crooks
Slim
Mice
Candys dog
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Who

• Used to be a boxer?
• Is the swamper?
• Is the jerkline skinner?
• Likes to gossip about people?
• Acts like a parent?
• Taunts Lennie?
• Shoots Candys dog?

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Themes

• Themes are the main ideas which run through the
  novel
• They help us to identify Steinbecks intentions
  when writing the novel ie. the issues he wanted
  to highlight
• Link them to characters and events
• Could you answer the question Discuss the
  importance of dreams in the novel.

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Nature
Power/authority
Hardship
Friendship
Discrimination
Isolation/loneliness
Dreams
Violence
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Setting

• Ensure you know where the novel is set and why
• Setting is made clear at the start of every
  chapter like stage directions in a play and
  all the chapter events take place in that
  location
• Steinbeck uses real geographical locations
• Remember that Soledad means loneliness
• Could you answer the question Choose one of the
  settings and show how it is important to the
  novel as a whole.

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Which chapter?Why important?
The Bunkhouse
The Bunkhouse
Barn
Crooks room (the harness room)
Clearing by the Salinas river
Clearing by the Salinas river
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Imagery/symbolism

• Animals
• Hands
• Names
• The colour red
• Light and darkness

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Key Quotations

• Learn some short quotations so that you can use
  them in your longer essay response
• Organise these under the headings characters,
  themes, plot, setting, language
• Keep the quotations short
• If you cant remember them exactly, you can
  paraphrase

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Who says?

• I seen the guys that go around on the ranches
  alone. That aint no good.
• You hadda, George. I swear you hadda.
• Coulda been in the movies an had nice clothes.
• Why do you got to get killed. You aint so
  little as mice.
• Come on ya big bastard. Get up on your feet.
  No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me.

George
Slim
Curleys wife
Lennie
Curley
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Structure

• Novella
• Similar style to a play - importance of entrances
  and exits, use of visual description
• Significance of opening and ending
• Chronological order
• Cyclical structure eg. opens and closes in same
  place and the characters lives are routine so
  become monotonous
• Use of foreshadowing eg. which events give hints
  as to what will happen later on?

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Foreshadowing

• What do the following foreshadow?
• The shooting of Candys dog
• The events in Weed
• The dead mouse in chapter one
• Lennie crushing Curleys hand

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Language and style

• Use of omniscient narrator (3rd person)
• Use of unusual metaphors and similes
• Vivid description of landscapes, setting and
  colour
• Californian accent and dialect to emphasise
  characters and setting
• Colloquial word choices, specific to ranch life
• Swearing/racist comments to shock? For realism?