Introduction to

1
Introduction to Of Mice and Men by John
Steinbeck
2
John Steinbeck

• Born in Salinas, CA in 1902
• Attended Stanford University majored literature
  and writing
• Became laborer and journalist
• Wrote novels, and play-novelettes
• Wrote stories for movies
• Wrote government propaganda during WWII
• Famous for Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, The
  Pearl, The Red Pony, Cannery Row
• Married three times
• Won Nobel Prize in 1962
• Died in 1968

3
The 1930s

• Depression
• - an economy with high unemployment, falling
  income, failing business, decline in production
  and sales.
• Misconception
• - Stock market crash was the cause of the Great
  Depression.

4
Leading Causes of Depression

• Mass Consumption
• Living above means
• Uneven Distribution of Wealth
• Uninsured banks
• Stock Market Crash
• Farming Depression (1920-1935)
• Cheap land
• Over production on wheat
• The Dust Bowl

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• The Dust Bowl itself was restricted to a
  97-million-acre piece of high, level land in the
  southern portion of the Great Plains
• From 1932-1936 the annual rainfall didnt exceed
  12 inches
• Low wheat prices and yields drove farmers from
  their lands
• Dust clouds lifted and settled over millions of
  acres
• Farmers and farmhands moved into California as
  migrant workers
• Seventy severe dust storms recorded in 1933

The Dust Bowl
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Living Conditions

• Migration - movement of people from place to
  place for permanent settlement
• Drought in the plains forced owners off farms
• Malnutrition
• Doubt
• Most severe for men, womens jobs actually rose
• Children more self-reliant
• Whites took-over jobs held by minorities

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Of Mice and Men - Characters

• Curley (bosss son)
• Curmangy dog, bully
• Antagonistic, jealous, possessive, hot-tempered
• Curleys wife
• Tart, rat-trap, jail bait, tramp, purty
• Never given a name, symbolic, knows of Curleys
  mean streak
• Candy
• Old ranch worker who is crippled in one hand,
  afraid of losing his job due to old age willing
  to help realize George and Lennies dream
• Slim
• Well-respected for skill and authority on ranch,
  offers advice and friendship to George, respects
  Lennies hard work
• Carlson
• Ranch worker who is practical and down to earth
• Crooks
• Black stable hand on ranch, lives by himself,
  beaten down from years of racism, yearns to take
  part in George and Lennies dream

• George Milton
• Georgefarmer
• Miltonhomage to John Milton, Paradise Lost
• Main protagonist, small and intelligent, migrant
  ranch worker, takes care of Lennie dreams of
  owning a small farm one day with Lennie
  consistently loyal to Lennie
• Lennie Small
• Lenniebold lion
• Smallironic Lennie is big, but small brained
• Secondary protagonist, mentally retarded,
  exceptionally strong, tries to obey George but
  struggles, loyal to George, soft-does not want to
  hurt any person or thing

8
Of Mice and Men - Setting

• Set in the Salinas Valley, about 80 miles south
  of San Francisco
• During the Great Depression money was scarce
• Setting is depicted using imagery and figurative
  language
• Most of story takes place on a ranch ranch is
  symbolic of the real world

9
Of Mice and Men - Focus

• Character interactions
• Conflict
• Setting
• Figurative Language