EC2 English Literature Chapter 4

Homework ●Begin reading Chapter 5

Goals ●Literary quiz ●Conflict: race, gender, age, intelligence and power

What is conflict?

●a struggle ●e.g. protagonist vs. antagonist ●good guy vs. bad guy

What is internal conflict? ●a character experiences two opposite emotions/desires ●good and evil ●causes suffering ●develops tension

What is external conflict? ●struggle with those outside forces ●most common: a protagonist fights the antagonist protagonist antagonist

What is race?

●group of people with different and similar biological traits o e.g. skin color, blood type, eye shape, hair texture

What is race? ●people treat other people differently because of certain traits o e.g. differences and similarities in eye color are not socially significant but differences and similarities in skin color are

What is race? ●a modern idea, e.g. ancient societies divided people by religion, status, class, even language; but not by physical traits ●race has no genetic basis, e.g. not one characteristic distinguishes members of one race with another ●slavery predates race ●race justified social inequalities as natural ●human subspecies don’t exist

What were Jim Crow laws? ●r acial caste system ●mostly in southern and border states ● 1877 to the mid- 1960s

1.A black male could not offer his hand with a white male because it implied being socially equal. 2.A black male could not offer his hand to a white woman, because he risked being accused of rape. 3.Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together. 4.Under no circumstance was a black male to offer to light the cigarette of a white female -- that gesture implied intimacy. 5.Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public.

How are race and conflict linked? Find examples of racism in Chapter 4.

How are race and conflict linked? ●had his bunk in the harness room (p. 66) ●books (p. 67) ●Cause I’m black … They say I stink. (p. 68) ●If I say something, why it’s just a nigger sayin’ it (p. 70)

How are race and conflict linked? ●pleasure in his torture (p. 71) ●I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick (p. 72) ●Candy came in.. embarrassed (p. 74)

How are race and conflict linked? ●Listen, Nigger,.. You know what I can do to you if you open your trap (p. 80)

What is prejudiceWhat is prejudice? ●bias ●preconceived opinion not based on reason ●e.g. anti- Jewish prejudices

What is prejudiceWhat is prejudice?

Describe Crooks. p.66-67

Describe Crooks. p.66 ●black ●proud ●bitter ●aloof: cool and distant ●victimized, shotgun for protection ●native Californian ●stable buck ●crippled: crooked spine

Describe Crooks. p.66 ●tattered dictionary ●mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905 o suggests that he found the books in the trash o reads because he is lonely, though these books are not entertaining

How does the setting create conflict? p.66-68

How does the setting create conflict? p ●a little shed p. 66 ●Crook = barn with the animals ●treated like an animal ●one place that he controls

What is gender?

●social or cultural references for male or female ●not biological (sex) ●roles for men and women

How does Curley’s wife’s actions create conflict? p Read aloud. Raise your hand when you think that there is a conflict.

They left all the weak ones here. p. 76

●Lennie: mentally slow ●Candy: old and handicapped ●Crooks: black and crippled weak characters also fight for power - even against each other

Think I like to stick in that house alla time? p. 77

●trapped ●like Crooks (both are treated as unequals) ●married women were not supposed to work ●lonely ●wants attention ●intelligent ●bitter

You got no call foolin’ aroun’ with other guys … p. 77

●Candy to Curley’s wife ●Curley’s wife: source of tension

Swell guy, ain’t he? p. 77

●verbal irony o suggests intelligence ●frustrated ●unhappy marriage

What is Curley’s wife’s dream? p.78

What is Curley’s wife’s dream? p.78 ●actress

Well, you keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree … p. 80

Curley’s wife could accuse Crooks of rape and he would be lynched. ●source of power Is she a villain? Or do you sympathize with her?

Are their dreams in shatters at the end of Chapter 4? Discussion Yes vs. No Find evidence.

Make a plan How does Steinbeck explore prejudices like racism and gender inequality in Chapter 4?

Revision Guide Make plans with evidence for the essay questions.