INTRODUCTION NOTES+

Journal / Notes Writing Assignment

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck

1902 – 1968Spent 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: Cup of Gold (1929), Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of

Wrath (1939), and Travels with Charley (1962).

Reputation centers around the earlier novels that portray California as the land of American promise, during a time of economic hardship in America, with The Great Depression as a backdrop.

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

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.

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.

Novel Facts

Genre: American Fiction / tragedy Written: mid 1930’s in California / published in

1937Setting: 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, societyMajor Conflicts: Man vs. Man / Man vs. society

Of Mice and MenNotes 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.