1. Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
Introduction PowerPoint

2. About the Author – John Steinbeck
John was born in 1902 and died in 1968.
66 years of age
Worked as a ranch hand and a fruit picker in his youth.
He often wrote about good, but poor and oppressed people who were trapped in an unfair world.
He won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

3. George VS Lennie George George & Lennie Lennie More intelligent
Friends
Less intelligent
Talks for both of them
Afraid of the past catching up with them
Tries to keep quiet
Shorter in stature
Migrant ranch hands
Taller in stature
Weaker in muscle
Hard workers
Stronger in muscle
Doesn’t like Curley’s wife
Dream of having their own place
Likes Curley’s wife

4. Story Summary
George and Lennie are two migrant ranch hands who fled from Weed, California, to a ranch near Salinas, California. They had to flee because Lennie had scared a girl there by holding onto her soft dress and not letting go. He had meant no harm, but he is not very intelligent and often does not realise his own strength.
On the new ranch, Lennie and George are doing well at saving up money to fulfil their dream of having a place of their own. Their dream is a month from fulfilment when they let Candy, an old man with one hand, join in their dream.
Then Lennie accidentally kills the attention-starved wife of the boss’s son. The boss’s son, Curley, is a small man who hates big men and seizes on this opportunity to hunt Lennie down and kill him.
George finds Lennie first and shoots him in the back of the head as he recites their dream one last time.

6. George’s Feelings Throughout:
Frustration
When Lennie forgets things
Anger
When Lennie wanted ketchup
Relief
When the boss hires them
Loneliness
When he has to keep travelling
Fear
When they are chased out of Weed
Humiliation
When Lennie starts talking
Pride
When Lennie proves his strength

7. Lennie’s Feelings Throughout:
Frustration
When he can’t remember things
Anger
When Crook says that George might disappear
Relief
When he’s told that he will still get to tend to the rabbits
Loneliness
When George isn’t around
Fear
When he kills Curley’s wife
Humiliation
When Curley laughs at him
Pride
When he’s compared to a bull

8. Curley’s Feelings Throughout:
Frustration
When he sees big men respected
Anger
When people laugh at him
Relief
When Slim isn’t with his wife
Loneliness
When he can’t find his wife
Fear
When Lennie crushes his hand
Humiliation
When he ha to promise to say that he hurt his hand in a machine
Pride
When he wins a fight

9. Curley’s Wife's Feelings Throughout:
Frustration
When no one will tell the truth about Curley’s hand
Anger
When no one will talk to her
Relief
When Lennie talks to her
Loneliness
When everyone goes into town
Fear
When Lennie tries to stop her screaming
Humiliation
When Curley tells her to shut up
Pride
When talking about being an actress

10. Candy’s Feelings Throughout:
Frustration
When people pressure him to kill his dog
Relief
When he gets to be a part of George and Lennie’s plan
Loneliness
When everyone goes to the fields
Fear
When he discovers Curley’s dead wife
Humiliation
When he thinks about his dog’s death
Pride
When he talks about his dog’s abilities

11. Crooks’s Feelings Throughout:
Frustration
When he can’t fight the racism
Anger
When Lennie comes into “his” room
Relief
When he starts enjoying Lennie
Loneliness
When he has no one to talk to
Fear
When Lennie gets angry at what he said about George
Humiliation
When he is not allowed to play cards
Pride
When he defends Lennie being in his room

12. Character Dreams/Goals
Dream/Goal:
Why is this Important?
Lennie
Tend rabbits
Finds comfort in soft things
George
Own a small farm
Sick of travelling and not having a home or a family
Curley
Be respected / feared
He has a complex about being small
Curley’s Wife
To be an actress
Bored, lonely, ignored and unhappy
Candy
Be in on George and Lennie’s dream
Feels old, useless, and unconnected to anything
Crooks
Be accepted
He has faced a lot of racism

14. Why Migrant Workers?
Before technology created farm machinery, humans had to do a lot of the farm work by hand.
Between the 1880s and the 1930s, thousands of men would travel the countryside in search of work.
Such work included the harvesting of wheat and barley.
These workers would earn up to $2,50 or $3,00 a day, plus food and shelter.
During the 1930s, the unemployment rate was high in the U.S., and with so many men searching for work, agencies were set up to send farm workers to where they were needed.
In the novel, George and Lennie (the two main characters) were given work cards frim Murray and Ready’s, which was one of the farm work agencies.

15. The American Dream
You can be successful if you work hard and live morally.
America is the land of opportunity.
Freedom to work hard and be happy is enshrined in the Constitution.
The Dream assumes equality of opportunity, no discrimination, freedom to follow goals and freedom from victimisation.
The idea of an American Dream for many was broken when, in 1929, the Wall Street crashed, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.
This era affected the whole world during the 1930s, but even in the midst of hardship, some people’s dreams survived.
Thousands of people made their way west, towards California, to escape from their farmlands in the Midwest that were failing due to drought.
The characters of George and Lennie dreamt of having a “little house and a couple of acres” which was their own dream.