Chapter 2 Of Mice and Men
Focus: The Power of Words
Controversial Language and
Dialect
Connotation
• The connotation of a word is the emotional
response it evokes. When we are tuned into
words, we understand that words can have a
positive, negative or neutral connotation.
• Being conscious of the connotation of the words
we choose shows maturity and understanding in
our writing.
• Being aware of the connotation of the words we
read is necessary to get the deeper meaning
and/or intended meaning of the author.
Word Meaning
(denotation)
Positive
Negative
Neutral
A person who is
small in size
petite
Scrawny
small
People who are over
65.
Elder
Old
Senior
Your example
What makes a word problematic?
A word is problematic ( maybe even controversial)
when it is a label that has a negative connotation.
• Gender : Think about, for example when someone wants to
undermine a behavior (crying, emotional response, etc) they often
portray that behavior as feminine. What implications does this have
for all? For example, think of how crying by little boys has
traditionally been looked upon. How do little girls feel if they are
not emotional. What happens when we label books “boy books” or
“girl books” and a kid picks from the “wrong” shelf?
-Sexuality – Jedidiah’s response to limitations on freedom of speech
-Socio economics
-Age
-Race
As you read Of Mice and Men…
…examine and reflect upon how words have the
power to:
• limit people (Ex. Lennie)
• degrade people (Look how Curly speaks to all
the men)
• label people (Ex. Curly’s wife)
• isolate people (Ex. Crooks the black stable
hand. Candy says, “They let the nigger come in
that night.”)
Of Mice and Men and the use of the
derogatory terminology:
• Staying true to setting, time, place, characters
• What does it mean if we ignore/skip over the
word, for example, “nigger”? Maybe it means the
word just feels too harmful to speak aloud, and
that is your choice. Maybe you feel it is a part of
history and ignoring the word means ignoring
the suffering of many human beings and you are
okay with saying the word aloud. This too is your
choice.
Cont…
• In the 1920s, the word was commonly used to
label and degrade people of African American
descent.
• At the time, they had no power to publicly fight
back against the word.
• The connotation is most definitely negative. In
fact, it possesses one of the most negative
connotations in the English language.
• Food for thought: It is one of the most
problematic and controversial words out there
even in 2011. Why?