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John Steinbeck 2

 Born in Salinas, California  Spent his summers working as a hired hand on neighboring ranches  Studied at the Stanford University, but left the University without having taken a degree  He had a lot of odd jobs, until 1932 when he succeeded in living of his writing  Described the realities of life- often the underside of society 3

 He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize- winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939)  East of Eden (1952)  Of Mice and Men (1937)  Nobel Prize for literature in

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 The story is about two traveling ranch workers, George and Lennie, trying to work up enough money to buy their own piece of land  The American Dream  The Great Depression in the USA in the 1930s 7

 The Stock market crash in 1929  Many independent farmers lost their farms and their tenant workers lost their jobs  Dust bowl 8

 Thousands of farmers moved to California where they hoped to find work  The dream about a little house and a couple of acres 9

 ”Guys like us, that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place… With us it ain’t like that. We got a future… because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you” 10

 Works as a hired ranch- hand  Huge and strong as a bull  Limited mental abilities  Taken care of by George  Dream of a future farm, where he will tend their rabbits  Gets often into trouble, because he likes to touch soft things 11

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 Works as a hired ranch-hand  Small and quick  Intelligent and cynical man  Cares for Lennie  Dreams of owning a farm and a couple of acres 13

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 They are now hired as a ranch- hand at the Tyler ranch  Menacing and dangerous situations at the farm  Curley- the ranch boss’s small aggressive son  Candy, an old ranch- hand offers to pitch in his life savings, so their dream about their own farm leaps towards reality 15

 Lennie kills Mrs. Curley  Curley gather together a lynch party  George shoots and kills Lennie 16

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 Out of date?  Classics  10.th grade  163 pages  Language 18

 Friendship  Hope  Racism  Loneliness  Prejudice against the mentally ill  The struggle for personal independence  chasing the American dream 19

 Mrs. Curley flirts with all the men at the ranch  Curley’s wife is the only female character in the novel  Tram or a tart  She wears fancy dresses and red shoes  She represents the temptation of female sexuality in a male- dominated world  Desperately lonely and has broken dreams  Gets killed in the end 20

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 Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature for his “realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception 22