Of Mice and Men

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Of Mice and Men

• John Steinbeck

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Anticipating Of Mice and Men
Directions The words below are taken from John
Steinbecks novel Of Mice and Men. Read the words
below and construct a storyline based on them.
Write out your storyline using each of the words.

• George
• Lenny
• rabbits
• California
• migrant worker
• ranch
• old mangy dog
• Curleys wife
• right hand
• pistol

• friendship
• mice
• American dream
• corrupt women
• loneliness
• Lennys puppy
• Great Depression
• death
• lynch mob
• disability

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Table of Contents

• Historical Backdrop
• Great Depression
• Dust Bowl
• Migrant Workers
• About the Author
• About the Novel
• Offensive Content

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Historical Backdrop

• Great Depression
• Highest unemployment rate in Americas history
• Dust Bowl
• Midwest experiences great drought
• Not enough food
• Migrant Workers
• People gave up farms/homes in search of work,
  heading west

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Great Depression

• Causes of Great Depression
• income gap
• high consumer debt, purchasing on credit
• weakened European economies following World War I
• large surpluses of U.S. goods
• Effects
• Stock market crashes in 1929
• 1/3 to ¼ of Americans are unemployed
• People rely on bread lines for food and sleep in
  tents and shacks.
• Government fights Depression through increased
  government regulation and massive public work
  projects to create employment

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Dust Bowl

• Cause of Dust Bowl
• Man exhausts the soil
• Breaks up the evolved prairie grass
• Overplants crops
• Crops cannot hold soil in great plains draught
• 7 year draught
• Effect of Dust Bowl
• Migration west to California
• Search for better life

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Dust Storm (above) Soil Erosion (below)
Clear Day Dusty Day
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Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

• Poetic novelization of the experiences of a young
  girl during the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma
• Excerpts
• Beginning August 1920
• Not too Much to Ask
• Rules of Dining
• Fields of Flashing Light

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Migrant workers

• Cause
• Crop prices fell, which led farmers to plant more
  crops to earn same amount of money
• Farmers had to invest in more equipment and help
• Huge debt!
• Stock market crash of 1929
• Farmers lose farms
• Effect Great Plains workers must migrate to
  California

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Migrant workers harvesting lettuce
18 year old migrant worker with baby
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Migrant workers waiting for relief checks
Ditch-bank housing for migrant workers
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Author Background John Steinbeck

• Born in 1902 in Salinas, California
• California is backdrop for most novels
• Spent summers as a farm hand
• Went to Stanford 1919
• Didnt earn degree
• Worked as a reporter
• Published many novels
• Cup of Gold (1929) Tortilla Flat (1935) Grapes
  of Wrath (1940)
• Nobel Prize in Literature 1962

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John Steinbeck
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About the novel

• Published in 1937
• Genre fiction, tragedy
• Setting Mid 1930s in Pacific Grove and Los Gatos
  ranch
• Characters George, Lennie
• Point of View Omniscient
• Conflict man vs. nature, man vs. man, man vs.
  society
• Plot George Lennie set out to achieve their
  dream of owning their own farm, but outside
  forces and Lennies character cause problems.

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Themes

• Themes are the fundamental and often universal
  ideas explored in a literary work.
• The predatory nature of human existence
• The importance of brotherhood and idealized
  relationships between men
• The Importance and Impossibility of the American
  Dream
• Struggle between whats right and whats
  convenient

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Motifs

• Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or
  literary devices that can help to develop and
  inform the texts major themes.
• Corrupting power of Women
• Loneliness and Companionship
• Strength and Weakness

Curleys Wife
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Symbols

• Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or
  colors used to represent abstract ideas or
  concepts.
• George Lennies Farm
• Lennies Puppy
• Candys Dog

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Offensive Elements in the Novel

• Swearing
• Sexual allusions
• Moral Choices
• Why might these potentially offensive elements be
  included in the novel?
• What effect do they have on characters, setting,
  plot, etc?