Presentation Transcript

1. CAT Question Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world.’ How far does Steinbeck’s presentation of the relationship between George and Lennie challenge this idea? Make a list of everything you think you might need to include to answer this question...

2. Idioms in Of Mice and Men

   blow their stake bustin' a gut live off the fatta the lan' bum steer canned flapper jail bait plug himself up for a fighter yella-jackets in his drawers Can you tell me what each of these idioms mean?
3. Objectives By the end of today’s lesson you will be able to: Answer your CAT question about the themes in the novella Of Mice and Men.
4. Paragraph has a clear structure – the opening tells what the paragraph is about. Authorial intent made clear Quotation is well chosen and shortened by ellipses. Steinbeck writes about nature. He uses a metaphor to show that Lennie is like an animal when Curley ‘stood crying, his fist lost in Lennie’s paw…’ This shows that Lennie is dangerous and can perhaps be unpredictable when, moments before, he had been ‘smiling with delight at the memory of the ranch.’ Steinbeck describes Lennie in this way to subtly suggest that he, like an animal, reacts instinctively to the immediate situation. Discusses language Embedded quotations Writes about two points in the novel. Analysis poses and answers the “why” question. ANALYSE = PEEEL
5. CAT Question Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world.’ How far does Steinbeck’s presentation of the relationship between George and Lennie challenge this idea? Write about: the friendship George and Lennie have why this friendship is unusual the dreams the characters have the effects of these dreams on the characters’ sense of loneliness how Steinbeck presents ranch life

6. Themes in of Mice and Men

7. Of Mice and Men The title of the book comes from a poem by the 18th century Scottish poet Robbie Burns. It is about a mouse which carefully builds a winter nest in a wheat field, only for it to be destroyed by a ploughman. It is written in Scots dialect. The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promised joy! The mouse had dreamed of a safe, warm winter and is now faced with the harsh reality of cold, loneliness and possible death. There is a parallel here with George and Lennie's joyful fantasy of a farm of their own, and its all-too-predictable destruction at the end of the story. Perhaps the is also meant to suggest to us how unpredictable our lives are, and how vulnerable to tragedy.
8. Shares a dream - to own a little patch of land and live in freedom. Joins George and Lennie's plan of owning a piece of land. Savings make it possible. Dreams of being seen as equal to everyone else. He knows his civil rights Shares a dream. His main desire is to tend the soft-haired rabbits they will keep. The only character who is innocent enough not to fear loneliness, but he is angry when Crooks suggests George won't come back. He is not lonely during the novel, as he has Lennie. He will be lonely afterwards, without his best friend. When his ancient, ill dog was shot, he has nothing left. Delayed killing the dog as he dreaded losing his long-time companion. Lives in enforced solitude, away from the other men. He is thrilled when Lennie and Candy come into his room.
9. HOMEWORK You will have tomorrow’s lesson to plan for your CAT. You will need to spend time at home planning: Come up with at least 10 different points to work with to answer your question for tomorrow’s lesson... Remember that this PowerPoint is on the VLE (Year 10 – Of Mice and Men – click on Of Mice and Men lessons – enrolment key: Lennie)
10. Loneliness and Isolation in “Of mice and Men” John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, is a story in which a dominating idea of inescapable loneliness prevails. "A guy needs somebody to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, a guy gets lonely an' he gets sick."
11. Of Mice and Men is filled with characters such as this, who are unable to find a way out of their lonely lives. The loneliness in this story builds and builds and never is allowed to escape. By never allowing its escape, Steinbeck effectively forms a solid backing for the characters and events in his novel.
12. Lennie Lennie's loneliness chiefly stems from the fact that he is both mentally retarded and very big and strong. His retardation sometimes causes others at the ranch to shun him, even to the point of thinking he is "cuckoo." Since Lennie cannot think as quickly as the other men, he is often set aside and isolated from them. He is unable to take an active part in conversations because George, Lennie's best friend and travelling companion, is the only one who can understand him.
13. Lennie is frequently off in his own dream world and is constantly preoccupied with dreams of the farm which he and George someday hope to buy. As a result, Lennie is unable to face reality at times, a fact which puts him even more out of touch with the real world and with other workers. Lennie is just like a big baby. He refuses to defend himself and often cannot be held responsible for his actions. This irresponsibility, combined with Lennie's abnormal size and strength, causes many of the other ranch hands to shy away and fear him.
14. The men are afraid of Lennie because they know that if his great strength were ever to go uncontrolled, it could easily overwhelm any one of them. This constant rejection by others increases the depth of Lennie's loneliness and adds to the theme of loneliness running through the novel.
15. Crooks, the stable-hand Crooks, stable-hand, is another lonely character at the ranch. The chief cause of Crook's loneliness centres on the fact that he is black. Most of the men constantly put down Crooks and use him as a scapegoat, even to the point of calling him “Nigger” rather than the more politically correct for the time “Negro”
16. Because of his colour, Crooks must live by himself in a small room in the barn. Crooks becomes so accustomed to this constant isolation, that he is suspicious of any man who suddenly tries to make friends with him. When Lennie accidentally stumbles onto Crooks' room one night in the barn and tries to sit down and talk, Crooks becomes so suspicious that he actually tries to drive Lennie away before giving up and allowing Lennie to come in.
17. Crooks' deformed back deprives him of working with the other men, thereby denying him his last opportunity for personal contact with them. While the other men work together in the fields "bucking" grain sacks or harvesting crops, Crooks must sit all alone in his little room in the barn mending harnesses and doing other menial labour. Crooks is perhaps the only man on the ranch who does a substantial amount of reading, vainly hoping it will help him pass his lonely hours. Unlike Lennie, Crooks has no dreams for the future, which gives him the feeling that he is trapped on this lonely ranch for the rest of his life.
18. Curley’s Wife Curley's wife is perhaps the loneliest person of all on the ranch. Since she is the only woman on the ranch, she is set apart from the others. Curley, her own husband, ignores her. He does not regard his wife as a person needing love and companionship, but rather as an object which can be put aside, pushed around.
19. Instead of being attentive to his wife, Curley is frequently going out with "the boys" instead of with his wife. Curley's wife has no love for her husband and wishes to leave him, but her final escape route is blocked since her father is dead and her mother doesn't want her.
20. Curley's wife tries to find companionship with the other men on the ranch but they ignore her or try to brush her off fearing that if they are caught associating with her, they will lose their jobs. Curley's wife's loneliness finally becomes so severe that she resorts to fantasizing herself as a famous actress just to feel wanted and more popular with others.
21. Loneliness Loneliness affects many of the characters, and Steinbeck seems to show that it is a natural and inevitable result of the kind of life they are forced to lead. The itinerant workers are caught in a trap of loneliness - they never stay in one place long enough to form permanent relationships. Even if such relationships existed, they would probably be destroyed by the demands of the itinerant life. Let's examine the lonely situation of some of the characters, see how they try to deal with it, and the result. Candy is lonely because he is old, and is different from the other hands. His only comfort is his old dog, which keeps him company and reminds him of days when he was young and whole.
22. Loneliness He has no relatives, and once his dog is killed is totally alone. He eagerly clutches at the idea of buying a farm with George and Lennie, but of course this all comes to nothing. Candy's disappointment is expressed in the bitter words he utters to the body of Curley's wife, whom he blames for spoiling his dream. George is also caught in the trap of loneliness. Just as Candy has his dog for company, George has Lennie (who is often described in animal-like terms). Continuing the parallel, George too is left completely alone when Lennie is killed. The dream farm is his idea, and he says 'We'd belong there ... no more runnin' around the country...'.
23. Loneliness Another lonely character is Curley's wife. Newly married and in a strange place, she is forbidden by Curley to talk to anyone but him. To counter this, she constantly approaches the ranch hands on the excuse of looking for Curley. The only result is that the men regard her as a slut, and Curley becomes even more intensely jealous. Finally, her loneliness leads to her death as she makes the ' serious error of trying to overcome it by playing the tease with Lennie. Curley himself is lonely. His new wife hates him as do all the ranch hands who despise him for his cowardice. He has married in an attempt to overcome his loneliness, but has blindly chosen a wife totally inappropriate for the kind of life he leads.
24. Loneliness His feelings are all channelled into aggressive behaviour which further isolates his wife and leads to the incident with Lennie where his hand is crushed. Crooks is another who is isolated because he is different. He copes with it by keeping a distance between himself and the other hands. When he does allow himself to be drawn into the dream of working on George and Lennie's dream farm, he is immediately shut out by George's anger.
25. Loneliness Like friendship, loneliness is another key theme in ‘Of Mice and Men’. We have already noted on a number of occasions how the kind of life that the migrant workers of the 1930’s live, did not lend itself to the development of deep, or lasting or significant friendships. It was a lonely and often solitary existence. Which characters do you think are particularly lonely in the story?
26. Candy He is old and disabled, and although the others tolerate him, he has no real friends except perhaps his old dog who, like Candy himself, is old and has become a burden. Candy deals with his loneliness by gossiping and listening to what’s going on. He is also worried about his future, though, when he is too old to work and that’s one of his reasons for wanting to join in the plan to buy the smallholding: ‘When they can sack me here, I wishtsomebody would shoot me. I won’t have no place to go an’ can’t get no more jobs.’
27. Crooks The black stable hand again suffers loneliness as a victim of racial prejudice. He is even kept out of the bunkhouse and has to live alone in his own room. He warns, himself, of the dangers of too much loneliness: ‘A guy needs somebody – to be near him…a guy goes nuts if he ain’tgot nobody’.
28. Curley’s Wife She too is doomed to a lonely existence. In a moment of foolishness, she married Curley and soon lives to regret it. When she appears at the bunkhouse, and later Crooks’sroom, she pretends to be looking for Curley but really she is looking for company. Although she likes to flirt with the men, there is a sense, too, in which she is genuinely lonely.
29. Additional information The theme of loneliness is also emphasised in some subtle ways by Steinbeck. For example, the name of the nearby town, Crooks’sbirthplace, ‘Soledad’ means ‘lonely’ in Spanish. The card game that George plays so often, called ‘Solitaire’, is a game for one player perhaps a suggestion that George will soon be alone.
30. How does Steinbeck draw attention to the fact that this friendship is sounusual? At the heart of the story is the friendship between George and Lennie. The first thing to recognise is that their friendship is an unusual one. They travel together, they find work together and they look after each other. During the 1930’s, for the migrant workers who were often displaced from their homes and families broken up because of the need to travel for work, few of them settled long enough in one place to develop lasting friendships. And against this background, then, the friendship between Lennie and George is all the more special.
31. How does Steinbeck draw attention to the fact that this friendship is sounusual? He does it quite frequently, mainly by the comments that other characters make about it. The boss, for example, is very suspicious because he has not seen: ‘one guy take so much trouble for another guy’. It is so unusual that he thinks that George must be exploiting Lennie in some way perhaps by taking away his pay and thus preying on Lennie’s gullibility and lack of intelligence. Curley, too, makes a similar comment and Crooks appears, because of his own loneliness, very envious of the friendship – so much so that he upsets Lennie out of spite with tales that George might desert him.
32. Friendship Who seems to you the only character who really understands the friendship?
33. Who seems to you the only character who really understands the friendship? Slim seems to be the only one who really understands the friendship between George and Lennie. He is sympathetic towards them to the extent that George confides in Slim and reveals a great deal about their relationship. He tells Slim about the incident in which Lennie nearly drowned and he also confides in Slim the incident involving the girl in the red dress and the reason they had to leave their last place in such a hurry.
34. Friendship How does George feel about his friendship with Lennie, do you think?
35. How does George feel about his friendship with Lennie, do you think? There are times, of course, when George becomes frustrated by his friendship with Lennie because he has to do the thinking for both of them, particularly when Lennie gets into trouble. It also annoys George that Lennie has forgotten things and doing the things that he has specifically told him not to do. However, when they get to the ranch, George’s responsibility for Lennieis diminished to some extent in that the others at the ranch also take Lennie under their wing as it were. Having said that, George needs Lennie almost as much as Lennie needs George and, has we have seen, it is Lennie that provides the real driving force behind the dream and gives George the incentive to carry on. In the end we see the true depth of the friendship when George shoots Lennie, even though the task causes him great suffering, in order to spare Lennie from any more pain or hurt. At the end of the story, though, as we have already noted, there is a glimmer of hope in that there seems to be a friendship developing between George and Slim.
36. Quotations Find quotations for all the points you’ve made so far today...