1. JOHN STEINBECK’S OF MICE AND MEN INTRODUCTION NOTES

2. JOHN STEINBECK 1902 – 1968 Spent teen years working on a CA ranch – the combination of the work and people served as an inspiration for many of his novels. Wrote 17 novels + stories, plays, and screenplays including:  Of Mice and Men (1937), and The Grapes of Wrath (1939),

3. OF MICE AND MEN - SETTING  The setting: the farm country of California’s Salinas valley  …where farmers, even today, employ temporary laborers to harvest the crop  The book was written in the days following the Great Depression.  unemployment rate was near 30%  California entrepreneurs were spreading rumors of a better life out west.  300,000 to 500,000 migrants came to California during the 1930s

4. STEINBECK’S CHARACTERS  Steinbeck’s characters are not the rich men and women of California’s thriving days, but are the homeless, migrant workers, poor fishermen, and farmers.  However, each of these people has a misleadingly simple, but important story to tell…a story that is filled with both love and pain.  The stories tell us not only of the lives of the poor who seek to live off the land and sea, but of the struggles of all people.

5. STEINBECK’S CHARACTERS  The Characters: migrant workers  describes someone who migrates within a country, possibly their own, in order to pursue work such as seasonal work.  The individuals literally move (migrate) from one seasonal job to another.  Typically, migrant workers are low-wage workers that perform manual labor in the agriculture field.  During the Great Depression, the use of internal migrant workers (workers from within the U.S.) inclined because they were emerging from the Dust Bowl states (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri)  Relationships: Two main characters (George and Lennie)  Lennie is mentally disabled, and George has assumed responsibility of taking care of him.

6. NOVEL FACTS  Genre: American Fiction / tragedy  Written: mid 1930’s in California / published in 1937  Setting: 1930’s / California  Narration: told from a third person omniscient perspective. The narrator can access the inner thoughts of any character, as required by the story.  Tense: past  Protagonists: George and Lennie  Antagonists: Curley, society  Major Conflicts: Man vs. Man / Man vs. society

7. OF MICE AND MEN NOTES WRITING ASSIGNMENT 1. This novel takes place in a rural CA setting with the Great Depression as a backdrop, filled with migrant workers.  Define what a migrant worker is. Predict what types of hardships you will read about in the novel, based on the setting and what you know about migrant workers. How do you believe this type of setting will help to shape the characters of the novel? 2. In addition to a critical setting, one of the main characters, George, has taken on the responsibility of caring for Lennie, a full grown adult with the mind of a child.  Imagine how difficult it would be to care for a disabled person. In fact, you may already be someone who has this responsibility in some way. If you are, discuss the challenges and rewards involved in this responsibility. If you are not, predict what this type of lifestyle would be like. In addition, add on the challenge of having to move from place to place in order to survive.