OF MICE AND MEN NOTES

By John Steinbeck

Characters/characterization

George Lennie Candy Crooks Curley’s Wife Curley Slim

List characters from most to least perceived power on the ranch:

Foils—characters who are oppositeto emphasize their differences

George/Lennie George/Curley Others?

Direct/Indirect Characterization Direct description

John Steinbeck’s Indirect description

Dialogue Actions

Ism’s—characterization and discrimination in the novella

Racism Sexism Ableism Ageism

The Title

Robert Burns poem “To a Mouse”

Literary Terms

Setting 1930s Central California Weed, Salinas, Salinas River Great Depression era Migrant workers and their plight

POINT OF VIEW? Affect?

Language terms

Dialect Idioms Colloquialisms

Realism Diction, imagery, detail creates Steinbeck’s

realism Tone/Mood

SYMBOLS—objects with connotative meaning/ representing abstract ideas

George and Lennie’s farm-- Lennie’s puppy Candy’s dog Rabbits Final scene: Water snake, heron

Death itself—in the microcosm(text as a min-world) of the text: Lennie’s death--death of innocence in a cruel world Curley’s Wife—symbolic of “Eve”, “Pandora” brings sin

and death to the world. Increasing nature of violence/death

Themes in the text: major topics Friendship /Idealized male fraternity Loyalty Compassion Loneliness Dependence Violence/Intimidation Euthanasia (mercy killing) Cruelty Discrimination/Social Injustice Moral Responsibility

Motifs: recurring themes/ideas The American Dream—the impossibility

of it Dreaming of an idyllic place Caregiving to the intellectually disabled Powerlessness of the

dispossessed/migrant drifter Predatory nature of Human Existence Corrupting power of women Loneliness and Companionship Strength and weakness