Of Mice & Men
Author biography information for
John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
• Born Feb. 27, 1902 in
Salinas, CA
• Only child
• Dad: county treasurer
• Mom: school teacher
• Star of football team
• Excellent student
• Accepted to Stanford
University
John Steinbeck
• Attended Stanford for 6
years, but never
graduated
• Took Journalism &
biology classes
• Worked as lab. assistant
& farm laborer during
summers
• Interested in attempting
to write a novel
John Steinbeck
• 1925: decided to travel to
gain experience for novel
• Deckhand on ship
• San Francisco to New
York via the Panama
Canal
• Pirate attack in
Caribbean!
• 1929: Cup of Gold
published
John Steinbeck
• Returned to Salinas
• Married to Carol Henning,
1930
• 1933: To a God
Unknown: poor farmer
loses land due to
Depression
• 1935: Tortilla Flat: winos
in Monterey/ Salinas
• 1936: In Dubious Battle:
grape pickers’ strike in
central California
John Steinbeck
• 1937: Of Mice & Men:
friendship & responsibility
between 2 men, Salinas
Valley
• The Dust Bowl: drought
and wind in central U.S.
• Poor farmers lost their
land, went to California
for better life
• Steinbeck wrote articles
for S.F. Chronicle, then
wrote Grapes of Wrath,
1939; won Pulitzer Prize
• 1941 movie version
The Dust Bowl
John Steinbeck
• WW2, 1941: due to
football injury, Steinbeck
did not fight, but was
journalist
• Divorced, remarried to
Gwyn Conger
• 1944: Cannery Row:
descriptions of life in
Monterey
• 1949: The Pearl
• 2nd divorce, 1950
John Steinbeck
• 1950’s: backlash from fame,
Steinbeck became an alcoholic
• 1961: 3rd (final) marriage to
Elaine Scott
• 1961: The Winter of our
Discontent: alcohol issues with
married couple
• 1962: Travels with Charley:
U.S. travelogue
• 1962: Nobel Prize for
Literature
• December 28, 1968, died of
heart attack, New York City
Issues in Of Mice & Men
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The Depression
Stock market crashed
Unemployment
Abandonment of families
by men
• “Hobos” wandered the
country
– Possessions on back
– Walking or jumping on
boxcar trains
– Going door to door for food
or work
– Loneliness & drifting
Hobos
Issues in Of Mice & Men
•
•
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Controversial issues:
Foul language
Mental retardation
Racist terminology
ASSIGNMENT: Using your
Cornell notes, please write a
summary of John Steinbeck’s life.
You should put the information in
your own words. Your summary
must be a minimum of 250 words
in length. The notes need to be
attached to the back.
This assignment is due on
Wednesday, September 14th.
The notes are worth 10 points; the
summary is worth 25.
ORGANIZING/FINISHING
your Cornell notes
•
CREATE CATEGORY HEADINGS for
different parts of your notes:
•
•
•
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CHILDHOOD-H.S.
ADVENTURE for 1st book
LISTS of published books
GRAPES of WRATH and the DUST
BOWL
WW2 – death
OF MICE & MEN issues
•
•
•
SUMMARY: At the bottom of your
notes, the last thing you do is SUM UP
all the notes in one sentence:
•
JOHN STEINBECK is an author who
wrote about controversial real history
issues in the 1930s.
•
The author JOHN STEINBECK used
real historical events as the setting
and theme for many of his famous
novels.
•
Award-winning author JOHN
STEINBECK showed Americans what
life was like during the Depression with
the plots of his novels.
Start your summary
• Each of your “categories” will be a SEPARATE
PARAGRAPH in your summary.
• A SUMMARY tells important points. The idea is to
REDUCE all the information in about ¼ to ½ its original
length. Tell IMPORTANT ideas, but not every little
detail.
• Your summary needs to be at least 250 words long. I
count words: first two full lines, get average words per
line; multiply this by all the lines that are at least half a
line long; answer is within 25 words of your word length.
• Summary is due Wednesday. Completed Cornell notes
are 10 points; the summary is 25 points, for a total of 35
points!