Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

1. Of Mice and Menby John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men is a novel written like a play (with lighting descriptions, character entrances, setting descriptions). It is the (often banned) Naturalism/Modernism story of two migrant farm workers: their dreams, friendship, and struggle to survive in depression era California.

2. M&M Setting When: 1930’s, Depression Era(workers valued, focus on family & small-town life, distinct concepts of gender emphasized) Where: Farm Country, S. of Soledad, CA (130 miles south of San Francisco) Structure: A cycle (begins & ends in the same place)

3. Major Characters

4. Motifs/Thematic Ideas • Predatory Nature of Human Existence • Man’s Animal Nature • Brotherhood / Idealized Male Friendship • Impossibility of American Dream • Corrupting Power of Women • Loneliness and Companionship • Making Hard Choices / Responsibility

5. Title’s Allusion To A Field Mouse On turning up her nest with the plough, Nov, 1785 Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie, O, what 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' murd'ring 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' request: I'll get a blessin wi' the lave, An' never miss't! Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! It's silly wa's the win's are strewin! An' naething, now, to big a new ane, O' foggage green! An' bleak December's winds ensuin, Baith snell an' keen! Thou saw the fields laid bare an' wast, 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 an' stibble, Has cost thee monie a weary nibble! Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble, But house or hald. To thole the Winter's sleety dribble, An' cranreuch cauld! But Mousie, thou are 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 art blest, compar'd wi' me! The present only toucheth thee: But Och! I backward cast my e'e, On prospects drear! An' forward, tho' I canna see, I guess an' fear! by Robert Burns But Mouse, you are not alone, In proving foresight may be pointless: The best plans of Mice and Men, Often go awry, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, Instead of promised joy! Of Mice and Men was almost titled Something Happened.

6. Great Depression • Depression Era Reality • Stock Market Crash (October 24th 1929) • Panic lead to the deepest economic depression the nation had ever known • Lasted until 1939, when WWII broke out • Causes included loss of foreign markets, a farm depression, lack of buying power for most people • Businesses went bankrupt, banks closed, factories shut down, farms were foreclosed upon • 1 in 4 were unemployed in 1933

7. GD in California “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. But it is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope – because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out.” -- Franklin Roosevelt, second inaugural speech, 1937

8. Whose missing from Lange’s picture? “Migrant Mother” Dorothea Lange, FSA • Iconic photo of GD • Poor CA Pea Pickers • February 1936 “When Dorothea took that picture…She never surpassed it. To me it was the picture of Farm Security. [The mother] has all the suffering of mankind in her, but all the perseverance too. A restraint and a strange courage.” – J. Stryker