Of Mice and Men

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Of Mice and Men

• John Steinbeck

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• John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
• Born in Salinas, California
• From a family of moderate means
• Worked his way through Stanford University, never
  graduated
• Went to New York, 1925
• Tried to establish himself as a free-lance
  writer, failed
• Returned to California.
• First became widely known with Tortilla Flat
  (1935), a series of humorous stories about
  Monterey paisanos.
• Novels all classified as social novels dealing
  with the economic problems of rural labor

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Steinbecks most celebrated novel remains The
Grapes of Wrath the story of the Joads,
impoverished farmers who migrate to California
after losing their Oklahoma land.
Published in 1939, the novel The Grapes of Wrath
won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer
Prize for fiction.
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Steinbecks frequent topic was the plight of the
misfits, the homeless and the hopeless in a
fast-changing America.
Curlys Wife
Lenny and George
Candy and his dog
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Of Mice and Men
A Novella
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The structure of this novella is clear and quite
simple Opening chapter begins at a beautiful
stream close to the ranch each chapter is an
extended episode, in the same place. Some things
happen over a weekend, while others, which have
already happened, are re-told (George tells Slim
about Weed Whit tells the hands about Bill
Tenner's letter Curley's wife tells Lennie about
her past). the closing chapter ends at the
beautiful stream.
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• Many classic novellas are concerned with people
• learning important lessons or making
• significant journeys. (Often both at the same
• time)
• Novellas tend to contain a concrete symbol,
  which is the
• narration's steady point.

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SETTING
Salinas Valley, California Map State Map Salinas
Valley
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Monterey County Farm/Ranching
Workers
Salinas Facts
The Great Depression
The Migrant Experience
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Dialect
A dialect is a variety of a language
characteristic of a particular group of the
language's speakers.1 The term is applied most
often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect
may also be defined by other factors, such as
social class.2

• Pronunciation

I was only foolin, Georgel
I wont get in no trouble, George. I aint gonna
say a word.

• Grammar

When I think of the swell time I could have
without you

• Vocabulary

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The number of speakers, and the geographical area
covered by them, can be of arbitrary size, and a
dialect might contain several sub-dialects. A
dialect is a complete system of verbal
communication (oral or signed, but not
necessarily written) with its own vocabulary and
grammar.
Whatta you want?
I was just foolin
well just say the hell with goin to work
if you jus happen to get in trouble like you
always done before, I want you to come right here
an hide in the brush.
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A dialect that is associated with a particular
social class can be termed a sociolect. Other
speech varieties include standard languages
jargons, which are characterized by differences
in lexicon (vocabulary) and slang.