NAME: __________________________________ PER: _______

John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men PowerPoint Notes

John Steinbeck
-Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas, CA
-He spent a lot of time ____________as a child and learned to
________________________.
-Steinbeck even worked during his summers as a ________________ at nearby
ranches.
School yearbook!

-At the age of 14 he decided to be a writer, he was even the editor of his High

-From 1919-1925 Steinbeck attended Stanford University to please his parents, but dropped out to work
as a field hand with migrant workers in California.
-During the late 1920s and 1930s, he wrote several novels set in California fields, using vibrant
______________________________.
-Steinbeck gained great success by readers and critics.
-In 1936, Of Mice and Men was published, and was so ___________________ that Steinbeck began a book
tour that led him to Europe and then NY.
-After writing many other works, including some non-fiction, John Steinbeck died on December 20,
1968, at his apartment in New York City.
-His 3rd wife took him home to Salinas to be buried near the ____________________________________.
The Book: Of Mice and Men
-Of Mice and Men was originally written as a_______ that could be read like a
novel, called ________________________.
-When Steinbeck first thought of the idea for the book he intended it to be for
children. Steinbeck told a friend that he was experimenting with a new
dramatic form.
-In May 1936, he wrote a manuscript, but his puppy (a setter called Toby) ate it!
Setting
-The novel is set in the __________________________________, where John Steinbeck was born.
-The countryside described at the beginning of the novel, and the ranch itself is based on Steinbecks
own experiences as a field hand in Soledad.

NAME: __________________________________ PER: _______

-The novel deals with the issues dear to Steinbecks heart, like, __________, homelessness, the
exploitation of migrant workers, the ____________________________ during The Great Depression.
A Bit of History-The Great Depression, The Dustbowl, Migrant Workers
-Between the 1880s and the 1930s, thousands of men would travel the countryside in search of
ranch/farm work. They were called migrant
workers.
-In 1929 the Stock Market crashed, banks and
companies failed, people lost their jobs and
homes, and farms went barren due to a lack of
demand for certain crops.
-In California, these workers would earn at
most _____________________ a day, plus food and
shelter.
-They were largely Dustbowl refugees from
Oklahoma, called ____________.
-Usually their family farms had been completely destroyed by dust storms, droughts, or repossessed by
banks.
The American Dream
-Despite the hardship, most Americans and immigrants still believed in the American Dream: you can
be successful if you work hard and live morally.
-The Dream assumes equality of _________________, no discrimination, freedom to __________________,
and freedom from victimization.
-Steinbeck often criticizes the American Dream as being ____________________ in his novels. Thousands
of people flocked from the Midwest to California as Steinbeck wrote his novels in search of a better
future that often never came.
Themes in Of Mice and Men
Society takes advantage of the _____________________: the less knowledgeable, the poor, and racial
minorities.
The ____________________________, to an extent, is unachievable.
____________________ makes people do things they would not normally do and is often provoked by the
lonely individual.
Symbolism in Of Mice and Men
-Animals: often symbolize ___________________________________________________________________________
-Water: ______________________________________________________________________________________________

NAME: __________________________________ PER: _______

- Landscape: _________________________________________________________________________________________
- Names: _____________________________________________________________________________________________
- Colors: ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Imagery in Of Mice and Men
-________________________________
-________________________________
-____________________________________________________
Knowing what you know about the American Dream, how Steinbeck
felt about the American Dream, the characters, and that Steinbeck
named his novel after the poem To a Mouse, what kinds of
predictions can you make about this novel?