Of Mice and Men: Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Predatory Nature of Human Existence Of Mice and Men teaches a grim lesson about the nature of human existence. In scenes such as this one, Steinbeck records a profound human truth: oppression does not come only from the hands of the strong or the powerful. Fraternity and the Idealized Male Friendship One of the reasons that the tragic end of George and Lennie’s friendship has such a profound impact is that one senses that the friends have, by the end of the novella, lost a dream larger than themselves. Ultimately, however, the world is too harsh and predatory a place to sustain such relationships. The Impossibility of the American Dream Most of the characters in Of Mice and Men admit, at one point or another, to dreaming of a different life. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. The Corrupting Power of Women
Crooks GCSE Bitesize: The Depression Crooks in Of Mice and Men Crooks (named for his crooked back) is the stable hand who works with the ranch horses. He lives by himself because he is the only black man on the ranch. Crooks is bookish and likes to keep his room neat, but he has been so beaten down by loneliness and prejudicial treatment of that he is now suspicious of any kindness he receives. Lennie's brief interaction with Crooks reveals the complexity of racial prejudice in the northern California ranch life. Though Crooks was born in California (not like many Southern blacks who had migrated, he implies), he is still always made to feel like an outsider, even in his home state. Crooks's little dream of the farm is shattered by Curley's wife's nasty comments, slotting the black man right back into his "place" as inferior to a white woman. Crooks Timeline
Of Mice and Men: Plot Overview Two migrant workers, George and Lennie, have been let off a bus miles away from the California farm where they are due to start work. George is a small, dark man with “sharp, strong features.” Lennie, his companion, is his opposite, a giant of a man with a “shapeless” face. The next day, the men report to the nearby ranch. The next day, George confides in Slim that he and Lennie are not cousins, but have been friends since childhood. Slim goes to the barn to do some work, and Curley, who is maniacally searching for his wife, heads to the barn to accost Slim. The next night, most of the men go to the local brothel. Lennie flees back to a pool of the Salinas River that George had designated as a meeting place should either of them get into trouble. When the other men arrive, George lets them believe that Lennie had the gun, and George wrestled it away from him and shot him.
Of Mice and Men - A Character Study In the novel "Of Mice and Men" the character of Crooks is used by John Steinbeck, the author, to symbolise the marginalisation of the black community occurring at the time in which the novel is set. Crooks is also significant as he provides an insight into the reality of the American Dream and the feelings of all the ranchers: their loneliness and need for company and human interaction. The reader has to decide whether Crooks deserves sympathy, or if he is just a cruel, bitter and gruff stable-buck. Crooks is a black man, but at the time the novel was written, blacks were referred to as "niggers", meant as a white insult. Being a nigger, Crooks is ostracised by the whites at the ranch and he resents this. Crooks brings into perspective the loneliness experienced by all the characters in "Of Mice and Men" by saying (p. 77) "Sure, you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. It becomes apparent that the treatment of Crooks has made him cynical.
Of Mice and Men: Context John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas, California, a region that became the setting for much of his fiction, including Of Mice and Men. As a teenager, he spent his summers working as a hired hand on neighboring ranches, where his experiences of rural California and its people impressed him deeply. In 1919, he enrolled at Stanford University, where he studied intermittently for the next six years before finally leaving without having earned a degree. For the next five years, he worked as a reporter and then as caretaker for a Lake Tahoe estate while he completed his first novel, an adventure story called Cup of Gold, which was published in 1929. In his acceptance speech for the 1962 Nobel Prize in literature, Steinbeck said: . . . the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. Critical opinions of Steinbeck’s work have always been mixed.
GCSE Bitesize: Crooks The History of Mental Illness: From "Skull Drills" to "Happy Pills" The limitlessly varied personalities of human beings have fascinated both scientists and fellow members of society throughout the existence of humankind. Of particular interest has been what happens when man’s mind turns against him, and what can be done, if anything at all, to reverse this tragic event. Attempts to treat mental illness date back as early as 5000 BCE as evidenced by the discovery of trephined skulls in regions that were home to ancient world cultures (Porter 10). Trephining (also referred to as trepanning) first occurred in Neolithic times. In ancient Mesopotamia, priest-doctors treated the mentally ill with magico-religious rituals as mental pathology was believed to mask demonic possession (Alexander 19). Figure 1: A depiction of treppaning from the painting Cutting the Stone (circa 1494) by Hieronymus Bosch. In all of these ancient civilizations, mental illness was attributed to some supernatural force, generally a displeased deity. Blue, Amy V. Houston, R.A.
The Migrant Experience - Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941 | Collections | Library of Congress A complex set of interacting forces both economic and ecological brought the migrant workers documented in this ethnographic collection to California. Following World War I, a recession led to a drop in the market price of farm crops and caused Great Plains farmers to increase their productivity through mechanization and the cultivation of more land. This increase in farming activity required an increase in spending that caused many farmers to become financially overextended. At the same time, the increase in farming activity placed greater strain on the land. Although the Dust Bowl included many Great Plains states, the migrants were generically known as "Okies," referring to the approximately 20 percent who were from Oklahoma. Todd and Sonkin also held recording sessions with a few Mexican migrants living in the El Rio Farm Security Administration (FSA) camp. California was emphatically not the promised land of the migrants' dreams. Robin A.
Of Mice and Men Point Of View by x0ellison0x, November 02, 2012 Although most sites will say that the point of view for Of Mice and Men is third-person omniscient, it is really third-person limited. 5 Comments 84 out of 173 people found this helpful Of mice and men by macbride14, November 28, 2012 Of mice and men is a fantastic book and film, it really shows how hard it was to live back then. 3 Comments 65 out of 150 people found this helpful A good read, but sad by Alfred_F_Jones, February 02, 2013 We read the novel for my 9th grade English class, and I'm supposed to be writing and essay about it right now, but oh well. The shot book got me attached to the characters, and I almost cried at the end, but I was in class. Overall I'd give it an 9 out of 10
Surviving the Dust Bowl . American Experience . WGBH Schedule Shop About the Series Sign up for Newsletter Contact Us Podcasts For Teachers Corporate Sponsorship Terms of Use Privacy Policy Additional Funding Provided By: Website ©1996-2012 WGBH Educational Foundation. This site is produced for PBS by WGBH. Full Website The Great Depression - Facts & Summary Hoover, a Republican who had formerly served as U.S. secretary of commerce, believed that government should not directly intervene in the economy, and that it did not have the responsibility to create jobs or provide economic relief for its citizens. In 1932, however, with the country mired in the depths of the Great Depression and some 15 million people (more than 20 percent of the U.S. population at the time) unemployed, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won an overwhelming victory in the presidential election. By Inauguration Day (March 4, 1933), every U.S. state had ordered all remaining banks to close at the end of the fourth wave of banking panics, and the U.S. Roosevelt took immediate action to address the country’s economic woes, first announcing a four-day “bank holiday” during which all banks would close so that Congress could pass reform legislation and reopen those banks determined to be sound.