Of Mice & Men Study Guide

Contents
About The Cleveland Play House
Of Mice & Men
Exploring the Play
About the Author & Playwright
Synopsis
Cast of Characters
Fact & Figures
Exploring the Context
The Great Depression
Exercises
California in the Depression
Time Line of the Dust Bowl
Migrant Workers
Migrant Workers in Washington State
Migrant Workers Today
Social Aggression & the American Dream
Exercises
Activity Sheets
Character Objective
Theme
A Good Plot
The American Dream
Who Makes the Show?
Be a Theatre Critic

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Written by: Kristoffer Diaz, Education Associate

Prithi Kanakamedala, Independent Dramaturge
Edited by: Domenick Danza, Education Director

The Cleveland Play House

The Cleveland Play House, Americas first permanently established professional theatre
company, is an artist-inspired producing theatre who once had a core company comprised
of many of the nations most accomplished theatrical professionals. The Cleveland Play
House serves its community through the unique experience of live performances by
telling a story that is entertaining, relevant and thought-provoking. We are the regions
most vital forum for the interactive exchange of ideas about the great truths and mysteries
of human existence.
Founded in 1915, the Play House is the oldest professional regional theatre in the United
States. Paul Newman, Joel Grey and Jack Weston are among the many actors whose
careers began at the Play House, which also operates the nations oldest communitybased theatre education programming. In the early 1900s, Cleveland theatre featured
mostly vaudeville, melodrama, burlesque and light entertainment, but a select group of
Clevelanders sought plays of substance on timely topics. Together they formed The
Cleveland Play House and founded a home in a farmhouse donated by Cleveland
industrialist Francis Drury.
Ultimately, Drury helped fund its permanent home at East 85th and Euclid Avenue. The
original Play House was built in 1927 to house two theatres. In 1949 the Play House
opened the 77th Street Theatre in a converted church, which featured Americas first open
stage the forerunner of the thrust stage that was popularized in the 1950s and 1960s. In
1983 the 77th Street Theatre closed and Philip Johnsons addition to the original facility
opened, making The Cleveland Play House the largest regional theatre in the country.

Of Mice & Men

EXPLORING THE PLAY
About the Author & Playwright John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck (1902 1968) was one of the greatest social novelists in the history of the
United States. His work often dealt with rural poverty in the American West, more
specifically, California, during the years of The Great Depression. Born in the small
agricultural town of Salinas, California, Steinbeck felt a personal affiliation with the
migrant workers and poor farmers who would come to populate his novels. In fact,
during his high school years, Steinbeck spent his vacations working on local farms and
ranches.
Steinbeck, however, always planned to be a writer. He attended Stanford University, but
did not graduate. He later moved to New York, where he failed in his attempts to
become a working freelance writer. Upon returning to California, Steinbeck discovered
his artistic calling: creating naturalistic and socially aware novels that expressed and
humanized the plight of rural California. Of Mice and Men (1937) was his first critical
and commercial success. It was followed in 1939 by his masterpiece The Grapes of
Wrath.
Other notable works include East of Eden (1952), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961),
and Travels with Charley (1962), a chronicle of Steinbecks three-month trip across forty
states with his poodle Charley.
In 1962, Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature. After his death, the New York
Times said of Steinbecks legacy: it lives on in the works of innumerable writers who
learned from him how to present the forgotten man unforgettably.
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Of Mice & Men - Synopsis

George and his best friend Lennie are migrant ranch hands, traveling along the Salinas
River in search of their next farm job. Lennie is strong but simpleminded; he has a sweet
heart and a childs innocence. However, he doesnt know his own strength, and this has
gotten him into serious trouble in other towns. George does the planning for the duo.
They hope to stick together and raise enough money to buy a farm of their own to live on
with rabbits for Lennie to play with and raise.
Once George and Lennie begin working on the new farm, Lennie becomes an instant
bullying target for Curley, the bosss son. Curley pushes Lennie too far though, and
Lennie uses his incredible strength to crush Curleys hand. Curleys wife is intrigued by
the strong and often silent Lennie, and she attempts to get closer to him in private
something that George had warned Lennie against. At first, their meeting is harmless.
Lennie opens up about his dreams of tending rabbits, and Curleys wife tells him about
her dreams of starring in pictures. When their conversation gets more intimate though,
Lennie loses control and accidentally kills her.
Lennie flees the farm and heads to a prearranged meeting place where he was told to wait
for George if something went wrong. George discovers what Lennie has done and
quickly realizes that their dreams of moving on and living peacefully can never be
fulfilled. George finds Lennie at the meeting place and, with an angry mob led by Curley
hot on Lennies trail, decides that he has no choice but to put Lennie down for his own
good.

Of Mice & Men - Cast of Characters

George: a ranch hand; friend and caretaker to Lennie, a short man.
Lennie: a ranch hand; friend to George; simple minded; a big fellow.
Candy: a stoop shouldered old man.
The Boss: superintendent of a big land company.
Curley: The Bosss son; alla time pickin scraps with big guys.
Curleys Wife: a tart.
Slim: a big, tall skinner who stands and moves with a kind of majesty.
Carlson: a big-stomached, powerful ranch hand.
Whit: a ranch hand.
Crooks: a lean-faced Negro with pained eyes.

Of Mice & Men - Fact & Figures

Original film poster

Steinbeck drew the title Of Mice and Men from a line by Scottish poet Robert Burns,
translated as: The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry.
The novel was a Book of the Month club selection even before it was published in 1937,
leading to 117,000 copies being sold in advance of publication.
Steinbeck wrote the novel as a potential play. He limited each chapter to a single scene
in a single location. When the novel became such an instant success, Steinbeck worked
with director George Kaufman to create a stage version. The play was originally
produced on Broadway on November 23, 1937, and opened to great reviews, winning the
prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Award and running for 207 performances.
Of Mice and Men has been adapted into at least five films, including the original in 1939,
and the famous John Malkovich/Gary Sinise 1992 remake.
The novel has been challenged, banned, and removed from libraries and public schools
throughout the country because of its language, racial content, and ending, with some
critics claimed promoted euthanasia (the act of ending the life of someone suffering
through terminal illness or another incurable problem). Following is a partial list of
bannings and challenges (attempts to have the book banned), listed by city or town:
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BANNINGS:

Syracuse, Indiana, 1974;

Oil City, Pennsylvania, 1977;
Grand Blanc, Michigan, 1979;
Continental, Ohio, 1980;
Skyline High School, Scottsboro, Alabama, 1983.
CHALLENGES: Greenville, South Carolina, 1977;
Vernon-Verona- Sherill, New York, School District, 1980;
St. David, Arizona, 1981;
Telly City, Indiana, 1982;
Knoxville, Tennessee, School Board, 1984.
Steinbeck's novel was removed from Tennessee public schools in 1984 when the School
Board Chair promised to remove all "filthy books" from public school curricula and
libraries. This classic was also banned from a public school in Ohio in 1980.

Steinbeck in the late 60s

Of Mice & Men

EXPLORING THE CONTEXT
The Great Depression

Migrant Mother by Photographer Dorothea Lange

The 1920s, sometimes known as the Roaring Twenties, were a period of great national
prosperity for the United States. The United States had become the richest country on
Earth following World War I. A major cause was the strength of industrial innovations
such as mass production, which allowed technological products, including automobiles
and radios, to be developed and sold more cheaply. Credit and loans became readily
available, and many citizens used this credit to speculate on the stock market, becoming
even wealthier.
In late October 1929, however, the stock market crashed. Investors rapidly sold off their
stocks as the value of their investments plummeted. Banks, which had lent money to
investors to purchase stock, were losing that money at unprecedented rates, forcing them
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to go out of business. With the banks out of business, and with individual investors
having lost their savings, other businesses were forced to close, sending unemployment
rates sky-high. The nation was in crisis.
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 kicked off The Great Depression, the worst economic
collapse in the history of the industrialized world.
Wealth was not spread evenly throughout the United States. The richest .1% of society
earned the same total income as the poorest 42%. The wealthiest citizens did not need to
buy new products and chose to save their money instead. The most impoverished
citizens were too poor to buy new products.
As a result, manufacturers were producing more goods than they could sell, disrupting
the economic system known as supply and demand. There were simply more products
available than people wanted to buy; the supply was much higher than the demand.
The United States economy began to crumble. Fifteen million Americans one quarter
of the work force were unemployed. No group within the United States society was
spared. In Ohio, fifty percent of the Cleveland work force and eighty percent of Toledos
work force were out of jobs. Farmers and other rural workers were hit equally as hard, as
prices for crops fell by forty to sixty percent. African Americans were hit particularly
hard, as their jobs were often taken away and given to newly unemployed white workers;
in 1930, one out of every two African-Americans was unemployed.

EXERCISES
1. Research the Great Depression and the New Deal and how they affected Ohioans.
Here are some websites to help you:
www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=500
www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/depression
www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/depression.htm
http://newdeal.feri.org/
a) What was the population of Cleveland and Toledo during the Great
Depression?
b) Using the unemployment percentages listed above, calculate how many
people were unemployed in Cleveland and Toledo during the Great
Depression.
c) What percentage of the population (approximately) is unemployed in
Cleveland and Toledo today?
d) Using this unemployment percentage, calculate how many people are
unemployed in Cleveland and Toledo today.
e) Compare and discus these unemployment percentages and the actual number
of unemployed people in Cleveland and Toledo during the Great Depression
and today.

California in the Depression

Migrant workers 1936

Californians suffered through The Depression as intensely as the rest of the nation.
Unemployment throughout the state reached twenty-eight percent by 1932. In 1934, over
one-fifth of the states population was receiving some type of public assistance. As a
whole, California farm income was sliced in half from 1929 to 1932, just three years after
the Stock Market Crash.
With employment so scarce, California residents began to fear that recent immigrants
were taking jobs from native-born workers. In 1935 Congress passed the Filipino
Repatriation Act, offering to pay the transportation expenses of any Filipinos who wished
to return to their homeland. The hope was that this would reduce population and open up
employment opportunities. Mexican immigrants were also targeted through similar
programs. Almost one hundred thousand Mexicans were deported, either voluntarily or
through force.
Californias depression woes were made worse by the arrival of residents of the Great
Plains who were fleeing the effects of the Dust Bowl a series of massive dust storms
that had rendered much of the nations farmland uninhabitable. Many years of poor
farming techniques combined with an ongoing, multi-year drought to dry out soil
throughout many states including Oklahoma, Texas, the Dakotas, and Montana.

The soil was then picked up by high winds and carried throughout the country, forcing
many citizens to abandon their homes. As much as fifteen percent of the population of
Oklahoma left the state. These Dust Bowl refugees often became migrant workers,
moving from town to town or even state to state in search of their next temporary farming
job.
John Steinbeck told the story of a family of displaced Dust Bowl farmers in The Grapes
of Wrath, which is often considered his masterpiece and received the Pulitzer Prize in
1940.

Toward Los Angeles, California. 1937. Photographer: Dorothea Lange. Perhaps 2.5
million people abandoned their homes in the South and the Great Plains during the
Great Depression and went on the road.

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Timeline of The Dust Bowl

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/timeline/

A dust storm
1931
Severe drought hits the midwestern and southern plains. As the crops die, the black
blizzards" begin. Dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed land begins to blow.
1932
The number of dust storms is increasing. Fourteen are reported this year; next year there
will be 38.
1933
March: When Franklin Roosevelt takes office, the country is in desperate straits. He took
quick steps to declare a four-day bank holiday, during which time Congress came up with
the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, which stabilized the banking industry and restored
people's faith in the banking system by putting the federal government behind it.
May: The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act allots $200 million for refinancing mortgages
to help farmers facing foreclosure. The Farm Credit Act of 1933 established a local bank
and set up local credit associations.
September: Over 6 million young pigs are slaughtered to stabilize prices with most of the
meat going to waste, public outcry led to the creation, in October, of the Federal Surplus
Relief Corporation. The FSRC diverted agricultural commodities to relief organizations.
Apples, beans, canned beef, flour and pork products were distributed through local relief
channels. Cotton goods were eventually included to clothe the needy as well.
October: In California's San Joaquin Valley, where many farmers fleeing the plains have
gone, seeking migrant farm work, the largest agricultural strike in America's history
begins. More than 18,000 cotton workers with the Cannery and Agricultural Workers
Industrial Union (CAWIU) went on strike for 24 days. During the strike, two men and
one woman were killed and hundreds injured. In the settlement, the union was recognized
by growers, and workers were given a 25 percent raise.

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The aftereffects of a dust storm

1934
May: Great dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl area. The drought is the worst ever in
U.S. history, covering more than 75 percent of the country and affecting 27 states
severely.
June: The Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act is approved. This act restricted the
ability of banks to dispossess farmers in times of distress. Originally effective until 1938,
the act was renewed four times until 1947, when it expired. Roosevelt signs the Taylor
Grazing Act, which allows him to take up to 140 million acres of federally-owned land
out of the public domain and establish grazing districts that will be carefully monitored.
One of many New Deal efforts to reverse the damage done to the land by overuse, the
program was able to arrest the deterioration, but couldn't undo the historical damage.
December: The "Yearbook of Agriculture" for 1934 announces, "Approximately 35
million acres of formerly cultivated land have essentially been destroyed for crop
production. . . . 100 million acres now in crops have lost all or most of the topsoil; 125
million acres of land now in crops are rapidly losing topsoil. . . "
1935
January 15: The federal government forms a Drought Relief Service to coordinate relief
activities. The DRS bought cattle in counties that were designated emergency areas, for
$14 to $20 a head. Those unfit for human consumption - more than 50 percent at the
beginning of the program - were destroyed. The remaining cattle were given to the
Federal Surplus Relief Corporation to be used in food distribution to families nationwide.
Although it was difficult for farmers to give up their herds, the cattle slaughter program
helped many of them avoid bankruptcy. "The government cattle buying program was a
God-send to many farmers, as they could not afford to keep their cattle, and the
government paid a better price than they could obtain in local markets."
April 8: FDR approves the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, which provides $525
million for drought relief, and authorizes creation of the Works Progress Administration,
which would employ 8.5 million people.

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April 14: Black Sunday. The worst "black blizzard" of the Dust Bowl occurs, causing
extensive damage.
April 27: Congress declares soil erosion "a national menace" in an act establishing the
Soil Conservation Service in the Department of Agriculture (formerly the Soil Erosion
Service in the U.S. Department of Interior). Under the direction of Hugh H. Bennett, the
SCS developed extensive conservation programs that retained topsoil and prevented
irreparable damage to the land. Farming techniques such as strip cropping, terracing, crop
rotation, contour plowing, and cover crops were advocated. Farmers were paid to practice
soil-conserving farming techniques.
December: At a meeting in Pueblo, Colorado, experts estimate that 850,000,000 tons of
topsoil has blown off the Southern Plains during the course of the year, and that if the
drought continued, the total area affected would increase from 4,350,000 acres to
5,350,000 acres in the spring of 1936. C.H. Wilson of the Resettlement Administration
proposes buying up 2,250,000 acres and retiring it from cultivation.

Dust storm 1936

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1936
February: Los Angeles Police Chief James E. Davis sends 125 policemen to patrol the
borders of Arizona and Oregon to keep "undesirables" out. As a result, the American
Civil Liberties Union sues the city.
May: The SCS publishes a soil conservation district law, which, if passed by the states,
allows farmers to set up their own districts to enforce soil conservation practices for fiveyear periods. One of the few grassroots organizations set up by the New Deal still in
operation, the soil conservation district program recognized that new farming methods
needed to be accepted and enforced by the farmers on the land rather than bureaucrats in
Washington.

Approaching dust storm in Texas

1937
March: Roosevelt addresses the nation in his second inaugural address, stating, "I see
one-third of the nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished . . . the test of our progress is not
whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide
enough for those who have too little." FDR's Shelterbelt Project begins. The project
called for large-scale planting of trees across the Great Plains, stretching in a 100-mile
wide zone from Canada to northern Texas, to protect the land from erosion. Native trees,
such as red cedar and green ash, were planted along fence rows separating properties, and
farmers were paid to plant and cultivate them. The project was estimated to cost 75
million dollars over a period of 12 years. When disputes arose over funding sources (the
project was considered to be a long-term strategy, and therefore ineligible for emergency
relief funds), FDR transferred the program to the WPA, where the project had limited
success.
1938
The extensive work re-plowing the land into furrows, planting trees in shelterbelts, and
other conservation methods has resulted in a 65 percent reduction in the amount of soil
blowing. However, the drought continued.
1939
In the fall, the rain comes, finally bringing an end to the drought. During the next few
years, with the coming of World War II, the country is pulled out of the Depression and
the plains once again become golden with wheat.

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Migrant Workers
What are Migrant Workers?

American Migrant Workers - 1936

*
FACT
They are people who might be born in another country, state or city and travel to work in
another place.
*
FACT
Unlike regular workers, migrant workers usually work in labor-intensive jobs (farm work
or construction for example), get paid in cash, and have little other benefits such as a
retirement fund or medical insurance. They certainly don't work at a desk with a
computer and phone!
*
FACT
In the past, migrant workers, such as George and Lennie, would literally move to
wherever the work was, therefore they would have no fixed home address. Today, this is
less true, but the work is still hard!
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*
FACT
By the time that Of Mice and Men was published almost half of America's grain was
harvested by huge combine harvesters. In other words, 5 men could do what would have
taken 350 men a few years earlier. George and Lennie are some of the last of the migrant
farm workers.
*
FACT
Huge numbers of men travelled the countryside between the 1880s and early 1930s
harvesting wheat. They earned $2.50 or $3.00 a day, plus food and very basic
accommodation.
*
FACT
During the 1930s, when there was very high unemployment in the United States,
agencies were set up under the Government's New Deal to send farmworkers to where
they were needed. George and Lennie got their work cards from Murray and Ready's, one
of those type of agencies.

Migrant Workers in the Field

*
QUESTION
Reading the following article (http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/mice/migartcl.html)
and answer these questions:
a)
Name two ethnicities of the earliest migrant workers (part 3 and part 4).
b)
Why did the Government ask Mexicans to work in the fields during World
War II (part 5)?
c)
Name the new group of people who helped in the fields during the 1960s
(part 8).
d)
List the differences that the article mentions between migrant workers in the
1920/30s to the present day (part 13).

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Migrant Workers in Washington State: a Boon to the Tree Fruit Industry

Photo by Harold A. Laney,

courtesy of the Washington Apple Commission.
Sons and Daughters of Dustbowl Migrants Pick Fruit in 1970's (Part 1)
When I started picking fruit in 1970, I was amazed that my fellow workers looked just
like the folks Steinbeck had described in The Grapes of Wrath.
I had thought these people had disappeared with the end of the Great Depression, but here
they were: large families, often including half a dozen children, working together in the
orchard and living in trailers, campers, or tents in the orchard camps. They seemed to be
part of a vast migrating network of extended families who picked the nation's fruit. Who
were these people? Where had they come from?
I learned that these workers were the sons and daughters of the Dustbowl migrants that
Steinbeck had written about in his novel. Many of them had left the southern states with
their parents in the 1930s and had come west, mainly to California, where work was
plentiful picking cotton and peas, but also, later, to the Pacific Northwest.
By the time I met them, some forty years after the dust bowl migration, the Anglo
workers who followed the harvest were so proficient that it seemed they had been "fruit
tramps" forever, and were destined to remain Washington's primary work force. But by
the 1980s, the agricultural work force had changed radically, and by the early 1990s, only
a handful of "Okies" still followed the fruit run. There had been other groups of orchard
workers before them, and there were to be others after them.
In the 1920's People Packed Their Own Fruit (Part 2)
In the 1920's, when I was a kid going to high school, quite often the school was shut
down for harvest, and if they didn't, a lot of the kids who lived on orchards stayed home
and helped the parents harvest. In those days, almost everybody packed their own fruit,
recalled Orondo orchardist Grady Auvil.
Native Americans: One of the Earliest Groups of Migratory Workers (Part 3)
One of the earliest groups of migratory workers in Washington State, particularly in the
northern part of the state, consisted of Native Americans. The Canadian Indians came
with their horses and tents and buggies and camped down here while they picked fruit,
17

said Len Wooten, who remembered the early days of orchard labor from his boyhood in
Chelan, Washington.
Indians came from Canada to the Okanagon every year until the 1950s. Auvil, who
worked as an orchard foreman in 1928, remembered that he was paid 75 cents an hour,
while workers received 40 cents an hour. But all that changed, Auvil said, after the 1929
stock market crash. When the banks collapsed in 1932, wages plummeted: Auvil's wages
went down to 25 cents an hour, while the workers received only 15 cents. "So, in order to
support ourselves, we worked on a road job that summer and got 50 cents an hour," Auvil
recalled.
Okies and Arkies Pick Crops During the Depression (Part 4)
Wooten also remembered orchard work during the 1930s. "When the Great Depression
hit, growers couldn't sell their fruit, and north central Washington was declared a disaster
area. Growers were walking away from their orchards." Those who did keep their
orchards, could hardly afford to pay their help. Wooten remembers being pulled out of
high school and sent to work picking apples for three and a half cents a box.
Despite the hard times and the low wages, for once, there was no trouble finding plenty
of hands at harvest time. There were thousands of people who were destitute and
desperate for work. These were the "Okies" and "Arkies," the names attached to the
Anglo migrants from the Great Plains, who came from the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas,
Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, or Texas. A combination of factors, from mechanization
to drought, dust storms, and a depressed economy, had driven these dispossessed families
westward to seek employment.
...What did these migrants do after the harvest? "For four months, they follow the fruit
and are tolerated. But, as soon as the trees and fields become bare and the harvest is done,
they are told to move on," Blanchard wrote in 1940. "Local farm help is adequate to care
for the fields during the next eight months. Communities, moreover, do not want these
poverty-stricken wanderers settling down and becoming a drain upon already sorely
taxed school, health, and welfare services."
Many Anglo migrants, as well as Mexican-American migrants from Texas who worked
in the Yakima area, traveled south for the winter months, to work and live in California,
Texas, Arizona, Florida, or other states. Yet others did settle successfully in Washington.
By 1941 and 1942, while many migrants were leaving farmwork to work in the booming
defense industry of World War II, others were just coming to the state to look for work in
the orchards. "People came from Arkansas in '42, '43, '44," said Auvil, "and in three
years, our school went from 25 to 150, so we had to build new schools."
WWII Labor Shortage Brings Braceros to Work in the Fields (Part 5)
After the United States entered World War II, everybody went to work in the shipyards
and defense plants. The demand for workers was so high that the government initiated a
program to recruit braceros--Mexican nationals imported temporarily to work under
contract in the fields.

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Although the labor shortage of the 1940s and 1950s was difficult for the growers,
migrants tend to remember this period fondly. For workers who decided to follow the
crops as a way of life, everything improved after 1941. As the Depression era's
oversupply of labor faded from memory, wages rose and pickers were once more in
demand. They would leave the orchards of the Northwest in the late autumn and travel to
Arizona and California to pick two major crops: cotton and peas.
Many of the workers I met in the 1970s remembered this period with nostalgia. "I have
some good memories from that time," said Dale Jones, who picked cotton in California as
a child. "I remember when you could work anywhere. Wherever cotton grew, there was
work. You could make good money at it."
Bad Experiences Remembered By Some (Part 6)
But not everyone remembered the migratory life so fondly. "Cotton was my worst
experience," said Gladys Wilson, whose family left Oklahoma in 1940 and picked cotton
in Arkansas, Mississippi, and California. "It was always so dusty. One time, Ma made
Jello, and it was all covered with dust... We had to travel from town to town. That's why
us kids never got much education." Wilson was grateful when her parents started working
in Washington State and decided to stay. "We settled down and didn't travel so much
when we started picking apples and cherries. We could thin, prop, and prune in the same
area."
1940's and 1950's: Search for Seasonal Labor (Part 7)
Now that there was no longer a surplus of workers clamoring for jobs, growers had to
become more resourceful in the 1940s and 1950s to meet their need for seasonal labor.
The larger fruit companies regularly sent buses to Spokane, Seattle, or Portland during
the harvest season to recruit workers, not only for picking, but also for packing, sorting,
and grading the fruit. They tried to make the jobs enticing. "We had our own cooks and
kitchens, and served lunches," said Wooten.
Still, despite the busloads of people brought into the area, the labor problem was far from
solved. Many of the transient workers were alcoholics who couldn't handle the demands
of the work, and often the buses were almost as full on their return trips to the cities as
they had been on their trips to orchard country.
This kind of recruitment continued into the 1960s. "When I came to this area in 1962, I
was managing a big orchard which needed a lot of labor," remembered Ing, "and we
chartered bus after bus out of Portland, and the Employment Security Service sometimes
helped us round people up, and sometimes we'd send somebody down the night before
and get them out of the restaurants.
Early in the morning, we'd load the bus, at four in the morning, and we also got some
people out of Seattle. Yakima didn't do that because Yakima is a big enough town that it
had a pretty sizeable casual labor group and a pretty good size Skid Row. In fact, we
hauled some labor out of Yakima sometimes. People would say, 'Well, here comes
another load of wine and flesh.' Of course, sometimes these people were in really bad

19

shape and they couldn't work the first day, and they'd just stay in a cabin, and then some
of them became excellent workers, they'd stay the whole season and were just great
people."
Hippies Worked in Orchards(Part 8)
Ing also remembered a nearly forgotten--and often maligned--source of labor: the hippies.
They arrived at the orchards in psychedelic painted vans and pickups with cabins built on
the back. "There were thousands and thousands of people that went on the road in this
country as a kind of a protest against everything...and these kids were out on the road,
and they did a lot of work. A lot of them were quite able-bodied young people, and they
kind of liked to work next to the soil, and that kind of thing. We got a lot of labor from
them...they contributed to the labor supply, and some people used them quite
intensively."
Mexicans Became a New Source of Labor (Part 9)
By the late sixties, there were signs of a significant new labor source: Mexicans. Since
the end of the bracero program, most workers from Mexico, and later from Central
America, came to the United States illegally. "Yakima, Toppenish particularly, always
had a Mexican-American population, people who had immigrated from Texas, and along
the border, so there was a large group there who worked in orchards and hops, etcetera,"
Ing said.
"But the people we have now, the Mexicans that were mostly illegal, started coming
about in the late sixties and early seventies...and I remember the transition. I was
managing Mount Adams orchard, a big operation here locally. Well, we ran a cookhouse,
and we fed the people, the Skid Row people that we brought in, we had as many as 250
people at a time, and anyway, there came a time then that we had a greater percentage of
Mexicans, and so we quit running the cookhouse, and the people cooked for themselves,
and there was a transition there all through the industry, where Mexicans became the
principal labor force. It started in the late sixties, but it was probably 1980 before the
labor force was mostly Mexicans."
Undocumented Latinos Replace Previous Workers (Part 10)
For the Okies, the people I worked with throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, the influx of
undocumented workers from Mexico and Central America spelled the end of a way of
life. Suddenly, they couldn't find work in the orchards they had worked for years; they
had been replaced. When they could find work, wages were low, families could no longer
work together because of child labor laws, and it seemed that employers no longer valued
them as much as they once had.
Additionally, mechanization of many crops had made the life of a migrant far more
difficult. Crops like cotton, peas, and beans no longer required hand labor; even fruit
crops like juice oranges were being harvested mechanically. Pickers had become more
reliant on fresh fruit crops, but now, with the deluge of workers from Mexico, there were
few jobs available. Discouraged and disheartened, many of them left the orchards for

20

other kinds of work. "Most of the Okies and Arkies gave up a long time ago," said Bill
Wilson. "There are not many places a white family can work anymore."
But what was bad for the pickers--a surplus of labor--was good for the growers. The new
workers--most of them, at first, males--were eager, and sometimes desperate for
employment and money to send back to their families. And by the late sixties, more
workers than ever were required to pick apples.
Research Changed Labor Practices (Part 11)
Researchers had discovered that fruit wasn't being picked at the optimum time, and this,
said Wooten, caused a change in labor practices. Once workers picked apples into
November; now a grower had only about five days from the time the fruit was ripe to get
it off the trees. This meant that a larger supply of pickers were needed for a shorter period
of time. Anglo migrants grumbled, but workers from Mexico and Central America, who
welcomed what work they could find, proved efficient and cooperative at a critical time.
They became the workers of choice. "It would be very difficult if it weren't for them,"
Auvil said.
More Changes, More Workers Needed (Part 12)
As the composition of the labor force was changing in the 1980s, so the requirements of
labor were once again changing. With the varietals, there was more year-round work,
blossom thinning, limb-tying, and color picking orchards several times. The demand for
labor was higher than ever, and the employment opportunities began to extend beyond
the basic four months. "We hire more people than we ever did now," said Auvil. "We hire
as many as we possibly can year-round. A good share of our people work most of the
time, anywhere from eight to ten months. You do a better job growing fruit if you have a
plentiful supply of good labor."
As different varieties of apples extended the harvest season and required more hand
labor, more workers have been encouraged to settle permanently in orchard areas. Since
many foreign workers have been granted temporary or permanent residence status under
the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, male workers who formerly came
north alone began to bring their families, and Latino workers became a more stable force
in Washington State's orchards. Like the Anglo migrants before them, they began to
establish themselves in the tree fruit industry.
"Many orchard workers can do pretty good," said Auvil. "These people all have families,
good cars, and a good living. A lot of Mexican orchard workers are doing very well, and
some of them are going into business for themselves, the same as did the people from
Arkansas."
Many Things Had Changed Since the 1920's (Part 13)
In 1992, picking cherries next to a family from Mexico, I realized how much things had
changed. The people I worked near now were no longer from Arkansas and Oklahoma,
and the children under16 were no longer allowed to help their families pick fruit. Instead
of migrating to California, Arizona, or Florida to pick fruit in the winter, the family that

21

worked next to me returned to Mexico each winter to visit their relatives. They were able
to collect unemployment during periods without work --an advantage most Okie migrants
never experienced. And they were more settled than most of the people I used to work
with: this family had bought a mobile home in East Wenatchee, and the father found
enough work in the area to keep him employed for eight months of the year.
Some Things Were Still the Same (Part 14)
But in other ways, things had stayed the same. Like the workers I talked to 20 years
before, the Latino workers liked the outdoor work and the ability to be near their families.
Too, they preferred the piece-rate system of payment that rewarded them for working
hard, and the seasonal work that provided variety.

California 1941

22

Migrant Workers Today

Mexican Migrant Workers Today

*
FACT
More than a million agricultural workers migrated to the United States in the early
twentieth century. The majority of these people found work on small family farms in
California; the owners of these farms welcomed cheap labor.
*
FACT
When World War II (1939) started a large number of jobs opened up. This meant that the
people who usually worked as migrant farm workers were called to do other factory jobs
such as making parachutes, artillery, airplanes and so on, and new migrant workers were
called in.
*
FACT
Most migrant workers in California today are of Mexican descent. This was not always
the case. Originally they came from East and West Europe, China, Japan, Korea and
Latin America, along with Mexico. The shift to Mexican predominance happened
because farmers were scared of racial conflict between the immigrating workers and the
"natives" of California. Farmers minimized this by telling Californians that the Mexican
workers would return to Mexico following picking season. But this broken promise
enabled the growth of systematic oppression towards the incoming Mexicans.
*
FACT
Today there are thousands of Mexican migrant workers in California, Texas and New
Mexico. They moved here for the same reasons most of our ancestors did: to live better
lives with more opportunities. Some are legal citizens of this country and some are not.
The recent controversy has been surrounding the illegal workers in this country.

23

Migrant Worker Today

*
FACT
Many of these workers do jobs that other Americans do not want to do. They work long
hours in construction, transport and farming and earn very little money. Our economy
depends on their hard work. The majority of the fruit and vegetables we eat today are
picked by these workers!

Immigration Reform Protesters

*
FACT
In May 2006 President Bush announced reforms to tackle the issue of illegal immigrants.
He said he would add 6,000 extra patrol officers along the US-Mexico border. In 2006
there were around 11.5 illegal immigrants in the country. 75% were born in Latin
America. Many had entered via the southern US border.

24

*
FACT
The President felt that there were too many illegal immigrants in the country. Indeed, the
Supreme Court ruled that a Mexican resident who had lived illegally in the U.S. for the
last twenty years, may not seek legal status and may have to be deported to Mexico.

Immigration Reform Protesters

*
FACT
But the opposition argued that the numbers didn't add up. The U.S. takes in only 2% of
the world's total immigration population. Of that 75% have legal status in this country. Of
the 25% remaining, half are thought to have entered legally on a visa but overstayed the
visa date, and the small amount of others entered illegally. As they have no legal status,
however, they are not entitled to local, state and federal benefits and therefore do not
drain central resources.

Immigration Reform Protesters

*
a)
b)
c)
d)

QUESTIONS
What jobs do migrant workers do today?
What is a visa?
In which states do the majority of migrant workers live?
Research your family ancestry. Do you know why your ancestors moved to the
U.S? Ask elder members of your family, look in the local library and online!

25

Social Aggression & the American Dream

in Of Mice & Men
For many victims of the Depression, the struggles of day-to-day life were almost too
much to bear. They needed something larger to turn to for inspiration. Many of these
Americans turned their hopes and faith towards The American Dream.
The American Dream: the faith or belief that the United States holds unlimited
opportunity for anyone, regardless of background, race, religion, or economic status. The
American Dream suggests that anyone who is born in or comes to the United States has a
chance to achieve high levels of prosperity and happiness.
Each character in Of Mice and Men is driven by a very specific objective: something they
want, need or desire; something they work towards or strive for. These objectives are
responsible for the actions of the character. Everything a character does within the play
can be traced back to his or her objective. In Of Mice and Men, many of these objectives
are directly connected to The American Dream.
Georges objective is to buy a house where he and Lennie can live on the fat of the
land. He and Lennie travel together and plan to save their money in order to buy the
little place with ten acres that George has heard is available. George knows that
owning that land would give Lennie and him some stability and security. In Act I Scene
II, he talks about the benefits of working on their own land:
Nobody could can us in the middle of a jobAnd when we put in a crop, why wed be
there to take that crop up. Wed know what come of our plantingAnd itd be our own.
And nobody could can us. If we dont like a guy, we can say: get to hell out, and by
God hes got to do it.

John Malkovich as Lennie & Gary Sinise as George

in the 1992 movie Of Mice & Men
26

Lennie has an even more focused objective. He wants to live with George and to have
his very own rabbits he can tend to and pet and take care of. In Act III Scene I, Lennie
dreams about the place theyre going to own, the work hes going to do, and the life he
and George are going to leave behind:
We gonna have a little place an raspberry bushesGonna take a sack an fill it up with
alfalfa anWe gonna get outta here purty soon. This aint no nice placeWe gonna go
wayfar away from hereWe gonna have a house and a garden, an a place for alfalfa.
And I take a sack and get it all full of alfalfa, and then I take it to the rabbits.
Candy joins in on the excitement after overhearing Georges plan to get
a little place with a couple of acres. Candy admits that he too wants a little place of
his own, and is willing to do whatever he can to get it. He offers his life savings to
George and Lennie if they will let him join them at the new house. In Act II Scene I,
Candy expresses how willing he is to be a part of George and Lennies dream:
Spose I went in with you guys? Thats three hundred and forty bucks Id put in. I aint
much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden someId make a
will. Leave my share to you guys in case I kicked off. I aint got no relations nor
nothingMaybe if I give you guys my money, youll let me hoe in the garden, even when
I aint no good at it. And Ill wash dishes and little chicken stuff like that. But hell, Ill
be on our own place. Ill be let to work on our own place.

Ray Walston as Candy in the 1992 movie Of Mice & Men

FAST FACT: Achieving The American Dream is often and traditionally

symbolized by owning ones own home.

27

Curleys Wifes objective is to leave her life far behind and move to Hollywood, where
she plans to become a motion picture star. She is married to a man she doesnt love and
stuck on a farm with no one to talk to or anything to do. In Act III Scene I, she dreams of
the life she believes she could have had:
I aint meant to live like this. I come from Salinas. Well, a show come through an I
talked to a guy that was in it. He says I could go with the showNother time I met a guy
an he was in pitchers. Went out to the Riverside Dance Palace with him. He says I was
a natural. Soons he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write me about it. I never got
that letterIll go in the night an thumb a ride to HollywoodGonna get in the movies
an have nice clothesAn Ill set in them big hotels and theyll take pitchers of mean
it wont cost me nothing cause Im in the pitcher.

Sherilyn Fenn as Curleys Wife in the 1992 movie Of Mice & Men

FAST FACT: Hollywood -- the Los Angeles, California neighborhood

that is home to the American motion picture industry -- has always
offered a shining vision of the kind of quick and highly visible
success often associated with The American Dream.
Social Aggression: actions and behaviors directed at damaging anothers self-esteem,
social status, or both. Social Aggression can take the form of facial expressions
(including the rolling of eyes and other looks of disgust), gossip and the spreading of
rumors, bullying, verbal and/or non-verbal exclusion, or the manipulation of friendships
and other relationships.
One of the most important causes of social aggression in Of Mice and Men is The Great
Depression. During the Depression, employment opportunities were increasingly rare, so

28

workers were forced to travel from town to town in search of the next job. They were
unable to start families and settle down. Workers who did get married struggled to keep
their families together. Saving enough money to buy a home of ones own was virtually
impossible on a migrant workers salary. Racial segregation was still a widespread
policy, and the economic collapse only heightened racial tensions.
The characters in Of Mice and Men are coping with the unique challenge of The Great
Depression. They have been victims of social change, economic collapse, and
environmental catastrophe. They are alienated from society. They are cut off from their
roots, from larger cities and from the mainstream of society. They do however get to
make the rules of their own little corner. They decide who gets to play horseshoes. They
decide who gets to join them in town on the weekends. They can choose to exclude any
member of their portion of society who does not fit the standards they have set. George
does not let Lennie go into town with the rest of the guys. The farmers prohibit Crooks
from entering their bunkhouse. Curleys Wife isnt allowed to stay anywhere around the
working men. Through these small acts of exclusion, the workers assert their power over
others, however small and insignificant those powers may be.
Curley is a bully to everyone on the farm. He intimidates the workers with the threat of
violence. As one of the bosses on the farm, Curley feels a need to establish his
dominance over the workers, especially those workers who are physically larger than
him. He sees those workers as potential threats to his authority. In Act II Scene I,
George warns Lennie about Curleys attitude:
You gonna have trouble with that Curley guy. I seen that kind before. You know what
hes doin. Hes kinda feelin you out. He figures hes got you scared. And hes gonna
take a sock at you, first chance he gets.

Casey Siemaszko as Curley in the 1992 movie Of Mice & Men

29

In Act I Scene II, Candy gives some other possible reasons why Curley is such a bully:
Welltell you what, Curleys like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. Hes all time
pickin scraps with big guys. Kinda like hes mad at em because he aint a big guy. You
seen little guys like that, aint youalways scrappy?
Candy suggests that Curleys small size has made him want to challenge larger men.
Curley wants to make taller and bigger men fear him so he can maintain control over
them, and he attempts to do that by cutting down their self-esteem and social status.
Later in the same scene, Candy also suggests that Curleys marriage is a possible cause of
his anger and aggression:
Seems like Curleys worsen ever since he got married. Like hes settin on a ant-hill
an a big red ant come up an nipped im on the turnip. Just feels so goddamn miserable
hell strike at anything that moves.
FAST FACT: The causes of social aggression are often different than
the victim of social aggression. People often take their anger or
frustration with one area of their life out on someone who has
done nothing to deserve it.
Another target of Curleys aggression is his wife. Curley follows her around the farm
and orders her away from the other men if he ever catches her. He doesnt allow her to
find anyone to speak to or spend time with. Curleys wife receives similarly harsh
treatment from the farm workers. The men on the farm regard her as a tart, claiming
she has no business being around them since she is a married woman. The men believe
that she is nothing but trouble. In Act I Scene II, Candy spreads rumors of her wandering
eye:
Well, I seen her give Slim the eye. Curley never seen it. An I seen her give a skinner
named Carlson the eyeWell, I think Curleys married himself a tartWell, you look her
over mister. You see if she aint a tart!
Later in the same scene, George shares his first impressions after meeting her:
Jesus, what a tramp! So thats what Curley picks for a wife. God Almighty, did you
smell that stink shes got on? I can still smell her. Dont have to see her to know shes
aroundI seen em poison before, but I aint never seen no piece of jail bait worse than
her.
FAST FACT: Social aggression against women can often take
the form of gossip and innuendo about their sexuality.
Both men and women are commonly guilty of this type of hurtful talk.

30

Crooks, the black farm hand, is a victim of a more widespread form of social aggression.
Because of the color of his skin, he is excluded from the bunkhouse. He is not allowed to
be a part of the larger community of farm workers. In Act II Scene II, Crooks talks about
the effect this exclusion has had on him:
Spose you couldnt go in the bunkhouse and play rummy, cause you was black. How
would you like that? Spose you had to set out here and read books. Sure, you could
play horseshoes until it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books aint no good. A
guy needs somebodyto be near him. A guy goes nuts if he aint got nobody. Dont
make no difference who it is as long as hes with you. I tell you a guy gets too lonely, he
gets sick.

Joe Morton as Crooks in the 1992 movie Of Mice & Men

Crooks also commits acts of social aggression. When Lennie tells Crooks about the
house that he and George are planning to buy, Crooks tells Lennie that he is nuts for even
imagining the possibility. Crooks gives Lennie a hard time about traveling with George,
and asks Lennie what he would do if George never came back for him. In Act II Scene
II, Crooks tries to dash Lennies dream of having that little piece of land:
Youre nuts. I seen hundreds of men come by on the road and on the ranches, bundles
on their back and that same damn thing in their head. Hundreds of em. They come and
they quit and they go on. An every damn one of em is got a little piece of land in his
head. And never a goddamn one of em gets it. Jus like heaven. Everybody wants a
little piece of land. Nobody never gets to heaven. And nobody gets no land.

31

EXERCISES
1. The American Dream:
Research the ways in which The American Dream has changed over the years for
different groups of Americans. These links can help you get started:
http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/American_Dream.htm
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/650704_The_American_Drea
m.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4265454.stm
a. In what ways has The American Dream changed since Of Mice & Men? What
social and economic factors have caused those changes?
b. How does The American Dream differ for different groups of Americans?
c. How did Martin Luther King, Jr. interpret The American Dream? Is his
interpretation related to the hopes and dreams of the characters in Of Mice &
Men?
d. Are there any characters from Of Mice & Men who you believe are capable of
going on to achieve The American Dream? Why or why not? Provide examples
from the text to support your answer.
e. Do all citizens of the United States have equal opportunity to achieve The
American Dream today? What social and economic factors support your
argument? Do Americans today have greater access to The American Dream than
Americans during the Depression?
2. Social Aggression:
a. What acts of social aggression have you seen in your school and community?
b. What role did the school or community environment play in those acts of
aggression? What role did economic factors play? What role did social pressure
play? Were there other factors that somehow impacted the situation?
c. List three major causes of social aggression in your life. Are any of these causes
similar to the causes of social aggression in Of Mice & Men?
d. What are some ways people attempt to establish dominance and authority over
you in your everyday life?
e. Has anyone ever taken out their anger with something else out on you? Write a
letter to someone who has done this to you. Explain how his or her actions made
you feel. Suggest some other ways this person might deal with his or her anger.
f. Have you ever taken your anger out on someone who is not responsible for it?
Write a letter to someone you have done this to. Explain why you might have
done this.
g. What are some alternatives to social aggression? Are there ways to address and
respond to the causes of social aggression without attempting to damage someone
elses self-esteem or social status?

32

3. Economics:
Data:
o In Of Mice and Men George could buy a little house with a small bit of land for
$600. He says, aint enough land so wed have to work too hard. Mebbe six,
seven hours a day.
o Today the average price for a home in California is $548,000.
o The average price for a home in the United States is $264,000.
Calculate:
a. What is the percentage of increase to own a home in the United States from 1937
to the present day?
b. What is the percentage of increase to own a home in California from 1937 to the
present day?
Data:
o In Of Mice and Men George says a guy can make a couple of dollars a day at
the American River. In 1937 this was a good salary.
o George also says, if me and Lennie work a month and dont spend nothing at all,
well have a hundred bucks.
o The current (2006) federal minimum wage is $5.15 and has not been increased
since 1997.
Calculate:
a. If you had a 40 hr./week job that paid minimum wage, and work a month and
dont spend nothing at all how much would you be able to save?
b. Deduct the following withholding taxes from the same monthly salary: 7.65%
medicare & social security, 10% federal, 3% state, 2% city and 3%
unemployment tax. What is your monthly salary after withholding?
c. Deduct the following living expenses from the same monthly salary after
withholding taxes: $500 rent, $32 electricity, $80 telephone, $20 gas, $320
groceries.
d. Are you able to save any money after withholding taxes and living expenses are
deducted from the minimum wage salary?
Compare:
a. Look at the calculations from present day minimum wage salary and living
expenses and compare them with what George says about saving money and
buying a house.
b. What conclusion can you draw from this comparison? What does this say about
the present day economy?

33

Activity Sheet

Character Objective
Characters in movies, plays, books, and stories have a basic similarity.
They all have OBJECTIVES.
An objective is: SOMETHING A CHARACTER WANTS, NEEDS OR
DESIRES throughout the story. They usually spend the entire time
pursuing this objective.
Each character in Of Mice & Men has an OBJECTIVE as well. What is the
primary desire of the following characters?
George:
Lennie:
Candy:

The Boss:

Curley:
Curleys Wife:

Slim:

Crooks:

34

Activity Sheet

Theme
Every play has a THEME. Every book and movie does, too.
Theme: the main idea or ethical precept of the play.
Theme is the same as topic, subject matter, premise or thesis.
Of Mice & Men focuses on the theme of FRIENDSHIP/PROTECTION.
List three examples of how the theme of friendship/protection is illustrated
in the plot of Of Mice & Men. Be very specific.
1. ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Do these examples connect to the objectives of the characters?
Think about your favorite movie or book. Answer the following questions:
Title: __________________________________________________________
What is the theme: _______________________________________________
List examples of how the theme is illustrated:
1. ___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Discussion question: What would happen if a story had no theme?

35

Activity Sheet

A Good Plot
Plot: what happens in a play; the story/stories being told as revealed by what
the characters say about themselves or each other; the action of the play.
Structure of a Play Script
Inciting incident: the launching pad of the play; the action or short sequence
of actions that constitutes the point of attack.
Rising action: the sequence of actions and events that leads to the climax.
Climax: the action that resolves the conflict; the central dramatic question is
answered; comes late in the play.
Falling action: the acceptance of the situation derived from the climax;
the resolution.
What is the Inciting Incident in Of Mice & Men?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
List three events in Of Mice & Men that can be considered Rising Action.
1. ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
What is the Climax in Of Mice & Men?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
What is the Falling Action in Of Mice & Men?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
A good plot
A good plot
A good plot
A good plot

keeps you guessing.

surprises you.
will have multiple themes.
builds on a strong central conflict.

36

Activity Sheet

The American Dream

The American Dream is the idea that anyone from any background, race, religion, creed
or economic standing can be born in or come to the United States and make it all the way
to the top.
Bill Gates dropped out of college to write software because he had an idea that one day
every home would have a personal computer. Now he is one of the richest and most
powerful men on the planet. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest
philanthropic organization in the world.
Oprah Winfrey started life on a poor farm, and eventually grew to be one of the best
known and most respected journalists in the country, as well as being an actress and
running her own company.
All of the characters in Of Mice & Men are after their own American Dream.
Can you think of that dream is for each character?

Ask the following people what their American Dream is,

and write it in the space provided.
One of your Parents: ____________________________________________
One of your Grandparents: _______________________________________
Your Aunt or Uncle: ____________________________________________
A Neighbor: __________________________________________________
One of Your Teachers: __________________________________________
Your Sibling: _________________________________________________
Your Best Friend: ______________________________________________
You: ________________________________________________________
Compare the answers you received. How are they different? How are they
the same? Why do you think they vary?
37

Activity Sheet

Who Makes the Show?

It takes a lot of people to put together a theatrical production. It is very
similar to the many people needed to put on a sporting event, like a
basketball game. Below are two lists of only some of the people who are
integral parts to either a theatrical production or to keeping a basketball team
in working order. Using the internet and what you learned from your visit to
The Cleveland Play House, write a brief description of each persons
responsibilities. Then, draw a line matching the person in column A
(theatrical production) to column B (basketball team).
A-Production Team

B-Basketball Team

1. Director:_______________
________________________
________________________
________________________

1. Fans:_________________
________________________
________________________
________________________

2. Stage Manager:_________
________________________
________________________
________________________

2. Owner:________________
________________________
________________________
________________________

3. Actor:_________________
________________________
________________________
________________________

3. Coach:________________
________________________
________________________
________________________

4. Producer:______________
________________________
________________________
________________________

4. Players:_______________
________________________
________________________
________________________

5.Audience:______________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________

5. Assistant Coach:_________
________________________
________________________
________________________

38

Writing Activity

Be a Theatre Critic
A very strong element in the success or failure of a new production is the Theatre
Critic. Use the following outline to write a review of the Cleveland Play Houses
production of My Fair Lady.
Paragraph 1: ABOUT THE PLAY
1. What was the title or the play?
2. Who wrote the play?
3. Which theatre company produced it?
4. What was your overall reaction to the play?
5. Give a brief synopsis of the plot of the play.
Paragraph 2:
1. What aspects of the production (i.e. sets, costumes, lights, sound,
acting), were similar to how you envisioned them? What aspects were
different? What aspects would you like to have changed and why?
2. What scenes in the play did you find most/least interesting,
entertaining, and enjoyable? What about these scenes made you like or
dislike them so much?
3. Did the production move too slowly, quickly, or at the right speed?
Paragraph 3: ABOUT THE CHARACTERS/ PERFORMERS
1. Did any characters touch you personally? Who was your favorite?
2. Were the character's motivations clear? In other words, could you
understand what each character wanted?
3. Which actor do you think gave the best performance? What did this actor
do that made you think s/he gave the best performance?
4. How did the way the actors use their bodies onstage enhance their
performances?
Paragraph 4: ABOUT THE SET
1. Did the set provide the right environment/atmosphere for the production?
If so, how? If not, why not?
2. Did the set reflect the themes and style of the play?
3. Were there any interesting details in the set? If so, what?
Paragraph 5: ABOUT THE LIGHTING AND THE SOUND
1. Did the lighting establish the right mood and atmosphere for the
production? If so, how? If not, why not?
2. Did the music/sound add to the mood and atmosphere of the production or
take away from it? How?
Paragraph 6: ABOUT THE COSTUMES
1. Were the costumes appropriate for the mood and style of the production?
If so, why? If not, why not?
2. Did any of the costumes reflect a character's personality or wealth? What
clues did the costumes give about the characters?
Paragraph 7: CONCLUSION
Would you recommend this production to someone? If so, to whom? If not, why not?

39

Of Mice & Men

by John Steinbeck
Clinging to each other for support during one of the most
challenging times in our nations history, George and his simpleminded friend Lennie dream, as drifters will, of a place to call their
own. But after they come to work on a ranch in California their
hopes, like the best laid schemes omice and men, begin to go
awry. The New York Times: A thrillera gripping tale! One of
the great classics of both literature and drama in American history.

Social Studies Focus: The Depression, Economics and History

The Economics of The Great Depression

40

STANDARD: History
Students use materials drawn from the diversity of human experience to analyze and
interpret significant events, patterns and themes in the history of Ohio, the United States
and the world.
By the end of the 11-12 program students will:
Benchmark A. Explain patterns of historical continuity and change by challenging
arguments of historical inevitability.
Benchmark B. Use historical interpretations to explain current issues.
STANDARD: Economics:
Students use economic reasoning and knowledge of major economic concepts, issues and
systems in order to make informed choices as producers, consumers, savers, investors,
workers and citizens in an interdependent world.
By the end of the 9-10 program students will:
Benchmark A. Compare how different economic systems answer the fundamental
economic questions of what goods and services to produce, how to produce them and
who will consume them.
Benchmark B. Explain how the U.S. government provides services, redistributes
income, regulates economic activity, and promotes economic growth and stability.
By the end of the 11-12 program students will:
Benchmark A. Analyze how scarcity of productive resources affects supply, demand,
inflation and economic choices.
Benchmark B. Identify factors which inhibit or spur economic growth and cause
expansions or recessions.
Benchmark C. Explain how voluntary worldwide trade, specialization and
interdependence among countries affect standards of living and economic growth.
Benchmark D. Analyze the role of fiscal and regulatory policies in a mixed economy.
Benchmark E. Explain the use of a budget in making personal economic decisions and
planning for the future.
STANDARD: People in Societies
Students use knowledge of perspectives, practices and products of cultural, ethnic and
social groups to analyze the impact of their commonality and diversity within local,
national, regional and global settings.
By the end of the 9-10 program students will:
Benchmark A. Analyze the influence of different cultural perspectives on the actions of groups.
Benchmark B. Analyze the consequences of oppression, discrimination and conflict
between cultures.
Benchmark C. Analyze the ways that contact between people of different cultures
results in exchanges of cultural practices.
By the end of the 11-12 program students will:
Benchmark A. Analyze how issues may be viewed differently by various cultural groups.
Benchmark B. Identify the causes of political, economic and social oppression and
analyze ways individuals, organizations and countries respond to resulting conflicts.
Benchmark C. Explain the role of diverse cultural institutions in shaping American society.

41

Answers to:
Activity Sheet

Character Objective
Variations of these answers might come up in classroom discussion.
Use these as a guide, not a definitive answer.
George: wants a little house and a couple of acres.
Lennie: wants a vegetable patch and rabbits.
Candy: wants a little place.
The Boss: wants productivity.
Curley: wants authority.
Curleys Wife: wants to be in the movies.
Slim: wants to work for himself.
Crooks: wants someone to be with him to keep him from getting lonely.

Answers to:
Activity Sheet

A Good Plot
Variations of these answers might come up in classroom discussion.
Use these as a guide, not a definitive answer.
Inciting Incident: George and Lennie are run out of town (Weed).
Rising Action:
1. George warns Lennie about eyeing Curleys Wife.
2. George tells Slim why he and Lennie were run out of Weed.
3. Curley picks a fight with Lennie.
4. Lennie breaks Curleys hand.
5. Curleys wife flirts with Lennie.
6. George goes to strike Curleys Wife, but stops himself when he
realizes the Boss is watching.
Climax: Lennie kills Curleys Wife.
Falling Action: George shoots Lennie.

42

Theatre Terms Beginner Crossword Puzzle

1

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16

Theatre Terms Intermediate Crossword Puzzle

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43

Theatre Terms Advanced Crossword Puzzle

1

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44