OF MICE AND MEN by boo

bindupaw1972 — 2020-09-13 10:28:26 UTC

What do I know?

What do I need to know?

How do I get there?

Setting: Salinas Valley

howllog — 2020-09-13 10:49:30 UTC

Setting: Dust Bowl

howllog — 2020-09-13 10:51:34 UTC

Dust Bowl Theory

bindupaw1972 — 2020-09-13 10:52:52 UTC

To a Mouse - Robert Burns

howllog — 2020-09-13 10:57:52 UTC

On Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough,
November, 1785

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murdering pattle!

I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion
An’ fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen-icker in a thrave
‘S a sma’ requet;
I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,
An’ never miss’t!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
Its silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!
An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,
O’ foggage green!
An’ bleak December’s win’s ensuing,
Baith snell an’ keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,
An’ weary Winter comin fast,
An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro’ thy cell.

That wee bit heap o’ leaves and stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turned out, for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the Winter’s sleety dribble,
An’ cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Still thou are blest, compared wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I cannot see,
I guess an’ fear!

bindupaw1972 — 2020-10-07 08:42:09 UTC

The Bunk House

bindupaw1972 — 2020-10-07 08:43:59 UTC

The bunkhouse was a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were

whitewashed and the floor unpainted. In three walls there were small, square

windows, and in the fourth, a solid door with a wooden latch. Against the walls

were eight bunks, five of them made up with blankets and the other three

showing their burlap ticking. Over each bunk, there was nailed an apple box with

the opening forward so that it made two shelves for the personal

belongings of the occupant of the bunk. And these shelves were loaded with little

articles, soap and talcum powder, razors, and those Western magazines ranch

men love to read and scoff at and secretly believe. And there were

medicines on the shelves, and little vials, combs; and from nails on the box

sides, a few neckties. Near one wall there was a black cast-iron stove, its

stovepipe going straight up through the ceiling. In the middle of the room stood

a big square table littered with playing cards, and around it were grouped boxes

for the players to sit on.

At about ten o’clock in the morning, the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through

one of the side windows, and in and out of the beam flies shot like

rushing stars. The wooden latch raised. The door opened and a tall, stoop-

shouldered old man came in. He was dressed in blue jeans and he carried a big

push-broom in his left hand. Behind him came George, and behind George, Lennie.

What does this description tell the reader about the life of a migrant worker?

Steinbeck opens the scene with the description of the bunkhouse. The word 'bunkhouse' suggests that this place is not one to be considered as a home.

Though it is a 'house' of sorts, the noun 'bunk' creates the idea that this place was to be avoided. Yet a migrant worker would be so desperate to find a job that the accommodation wouldn't matter to them. Furthering this idea is where Steinbeck portrays the table to be 'littered' with playing cards. The verb 'littered'

Although Steinbeck refers to the setting as a house, this is ironic because there is no sense of belonging. Steinbeck creates a feeling that is hostile, the place is uninviting. Furthermore, this is reinforced by the cards 'littered' on the table. The verb 'littered'

This contrasts with...

This could symbolise ....

The first line is lacking in

colour, description; it is

also a mundane, monotonous

bindupaw1972 — 2020-10-07 08:52:15 UTC

bindupaw1972 — 2020-10-07 08:52:22 UTC

bindupaw1972 — 2020-10-07 08:55:06 UTC

The American Dream

bindupaw1972 — 2020-10-07 09:36:22 UTC

Poor and oppressed people the world over were attracted to America from the time of its discovery. Conditions were hard for the early settlers, but 'The American Dream' was of freedom, independence and owning one's own land. The dream was a real possibility while there was still a 'frontier' of unclaimed land, but by 1900 there was no unsettled land in America, and in reality the dream was over. It still survived in the popular imagination and in literature at least until the late 1920s. By then America had built its own aristocracy on the basis of wealth and its own system of repression based on race. The final blow was dealt by the Wall Street Crash, when the value of shares on the stock market fell dramatically. This marked the start of the Great Depression that swept the world in the 1930s. Farming was as badly affected as any other area of the economy. Decay there was sped up because ignorance and over-farming had resulted in hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland drying up, losing precious top soil and being turned into the famous 'dust bowl'. Poor crops meant that many farmers were unable to repay the loans they had taken out to buy their land.

bindupaw1972 — 2020-10-07 09:40:26 UTC

Opening Description from ‘Of Mice and Men’

howllog — 2020-10-07 10:06:35 UTC

symbols/ motifs/techniques/

How does Steinbeck create an idyllic setting at the beginning of the novel?

Idyllic - peaceful, pleasant, idealism, idea,

A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan Mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees- willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter's flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. On the sandy bank under the trees, the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks of 'coons, and with the spread pads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark.

There is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten hard by boys coming down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down from the highway in the evening to jungle-up near water. In front of the low horizontal limb of a giant sycamore, there is an ash pile made by many fires; the limb is worn smooth by men who have sat on it.

An evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sandbanks, the rabbits sat as quietly as little grey sculptured stones. And then from the direction of the state highway came the sound of footsteps on crisp sycamore leaves. The rabbits hurried noiselessly for cover. A stilted heron labored up into the air and pounded down river. For a moment the place was lifeless, and then two men emerged from the path and came into the opening by the green pool.

Setting

Character

Action

Style = techniques

Ideas - Needs clue - nature

PETAL

howllog — 2020-10-07 10:07:26 UTC

Point Steinbeck creates a peaceful opening in his novel

Evidence

Technique

Analysis

Link

How does Steinbeck open the novel?

Steinbeck opens the novel with a tranquil and idyllic setting in his novel to give the reader a heavenly description of nature in its pure form. He uses the present tense to begin the cyclical structure of his novel and foreshadows the ending.

Steinbeck creates a gentle mood to portray nature's innocence, highlighting its vulnerability. For example, he uses soft verbs such as ‘slipped’ and ‘arched’. The verb ‘slipped’ is smooth enunciating the flowing rhythm of the Salinas River itself. Also, the motion of the branches ‘arching’ seems almost as if they are stretching; this verb suggests the ease and reflects the tranquillity of this first scene and shows the natural order of the world.

Steinbeck uses the arrival of man’s effect on the environment when the pace changes by the

This is evident where the Salinas River ‘slipped twinkling.’

Themes

howllog — 2020-10-07 10:08:18 UTC

Isolation

Nature and Control

Idealism / Biblical

Man interfering with Nature

Purity and protection

Foreshadowing

Destruction

Power v powerlessness

bindupaw1972 — 2021-09-14 11:42:05 UTC

exam dates: 14th November - Language - Transactional - comparative

bindupaw1972 — 2021-11-02 14:14:34 UTC

15th - Literature - OMAM/Unseen poetry

https://www.brainscape.com/packs/igcse-edexcel-english-literature-of-mice-and-men-11792972

bindupaw1972 — 2021-11-02 14:19:15 UTC

2021-11-02 14:22:01 UTC

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/

https://mrspeacockenglish.wordpress.com/tag/of-mice-and-men/

bindupaw1972 — 2021-11-02 14:22:21 UTC

https://jwpblog.com/2021/04/20/omam-essays-for-edexcel-loom-link/

bindupaw1972 — 2021-11-02 14:56:46 UTC

Revision

bindupaw1972 — 2021-11-02 14:58:59 UTC

Key moments
Big Ideas/Context
Themes
characters/Steinbeck
Quotes

bindupaw1972 — 2021-11-09 13:53:50 UTC