omm notes slideshow teacher
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Of Mice & Men Background Notes
The Great Depression• 1929-1942
• Stock Market Crash
• Drought --> Dust Bowl
• Farmers went into bankruptcy -- lost their farms and had to move.
• Banks closed, people lost savings, awful inflation
• Unemployment, no minimum wage
Time: 1930s
![Page 2: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Oklahoma Dust Bowl
![Page 3: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Setting of NovelPlace• General Area
– Salinas, California• Valley, rural area,
farming community• California seen as the
“Promised Land”
• Specific Area– Ranch “a few miles south
of Soledad”– What does “Soledad”
mean in Spanish?• “loneliness” or “solitude”
![Page 4: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Significance . . .• Influx of itinerant workers.
– Workers who move from place to place.
• Roamed from farm to farm in California– Why? New season = new crops
• Mostly single men
• “Rootless and isolated” existence– Most traveled alone and had
no place to call home– Had a yearning for a home
but no way to secure it
![Page 5: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Author: John Steinbeck• 1919-1925 attended Stanford
University -- left without a degree
• Supported himself at times by working as a “bindle stiff”
• On the farms, listened to stories and absorbed speech patterns of migrant workers
• Quoted in NY Times in 1937: “Lennie was a real person . . . I worked alongside him for many weeks.”
• Considered to be one of the finest 20th century American authors
•Born in Salinas, CA
•1902-1968
![Page 6: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Steinbeck’s Notable Works
• Tortilla Flat (1935)• Of Mice and Men
(1937)• The Grapes of Wrath
(1939)
• The Pearl (1947)• East of Eden (1952)
![Page 7: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Themes in OMM
• Innocence • Friendship• Loneliness• Discrimination• The American Dream
![Page 8: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Aspects of Society during OMM
• Position of Women– Expectation: get married, depend on a
man
• Racial Minority Groups– Treated as second class
-- especially African- Americans
![Page 9: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Aspects of Society during OMM• Individuals with Learning differences
– Considered “insane” or “crazy” and thought of as dangerous– No schooling or facilities; were often sent to asylums
• The Elderly– Depended on their families -- no Social Security– Harder to find jobs -- workers were judged
by their physical ability, endurance, and usefulness.
![Page 10: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Style of OMM = Naturalism
• Movement in writing in Steinbeck’s time
• Goal: Show life EXACTLY as it is
• Avoids euphemism and exaggeration.
• The reality of a specific part of society
• Philosophy: not ONE person or thing is ever at sole fault for what happens
![Page 11: Omm Notes Slideshow Teacher](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022032122/55d50b60bb61ebb4708b466d/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Controversy Surrounding Steinbeck’s work:
Naturalism
Pros Cons
Writing life “as it should be”
Pros Cons
In 1936, Steinbeck stated: “For too long, the language of books was different from the language of men. To the men I write about, profanity is adornment and ornament and is NEVER vulgar and I try to write it so.”
He does NOT do it for shock value, or effect, or to garner audience. It’s written that way because that was the reality of the situation at the time.