Essay Topics for Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Creative writing options:
1. In 3 pages, rewrite Chapter 6 in Of Mice and Men.
2. Write a 3-page epilogue to the story. What is left unsaid by Steinbeck?
3. Write Lennie Small’s eulogy as if you were George Milton.
Rhetorical analysis options:
1. Discuss the novel's view of relationships between men (as friends, enemies,
and acquaintances). What word sums up the various relationships among the
men?
2. Analyze Steinbeck's portrayal of Curley's wife as the lone female on the allmale ranch. What impression does he create of women?
3. Discuss what you believe to be the theme of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.
What does Steinbeck tell the reader beyond the scope of the story? Beyond the
plot?
4. Do you think a modern reader can appreciate the value of a novel like Of Mice
and Men? Why (not)?
5. What literary devices did Steinbeck utilize in his novella Of Mice and Men?
How did his style enhance the quality of the story?
6. Is the setting of Of Mice and Men realistic? How does Steinbeck represent the
1930s? Please note: this essay requires comparing/contrasting fiction and
history, and therefore does require some outside research.
What in the world is a rhetorical analysis?
To begin, let us define what a rhetorical analysis is NOT. A rhetorical analysis is
not a summary of a literary work or scholarly article. You may have analyzed a
novel’s plot line or taken apart the meaning of Shakespeare’s “to be or not to be”
soliloquy in Hamlet before; however, trying to understand the meaning of a work
or summarize a story is NOT the goal of a rhetorical analysis!
Now that we’ve declared the most common mistake among rhetorical analysis
papers, let’s begin dissecting what a rhetorical analysis does ask you to do.
Definition: A rhetorical analysis requires you to apply your critical
reading skills in order to “break down” a text. In essence, you break off
the “parts” from the “whole” of the piece you’re analyzing. The goal of a
rhetorical analysis is to articulate HOW the author writes, rather than WHAT they
actually wrote. To do this, you will analyze the strategies the author uses to
achieve his or her goal or purpose of writing their piece.
Okay, so now that you’ve grasped the “dictionary” concept of a rhetorical
analysis, let’s break it down into more manageable parts.
*First off, you want to make sure you READ the scholarly articles, literary work,
etc., carefully and understand what you have read. Try to identify the author’s
thesis, or his/her main idea or argument.
*Now that you’ve read your sources and understand their overall arguments, it’s
time to start analyzing them for rhetorical features. Take a second look at your
sources, but this time, keep the following questions in mind and write the
answers on a separate sheet of paper.
Questions to ask yourself when re-reading your articles, sources, etc:
1. What is the thesis, what is the overall argument the author presents?
2. What did the author choose to study? Why?
3. What is the writer’s purpose? To inform? To persuade? To criticize?
4. Who is the author’s intended audience?
5. How does the writer arrange his or her ideas? Chronologically?
6. How does the writer use diction? (Word choice, arrangement, accuracy, is it
formal, informal? Technical versus slang?)
7. Does the writer use dialogue? Quotations? Why?
8. Are important terms repeated?
9. What is the sentence structure of text? Are there fragments, run ons? Is it
declarative, imperative, exclamatory? What effect does this have?
10. Does the writer use punctuation to create an effect? Italics, underlining,
parentheses? Which marks does the writer use, and when?
http://www.ncsu.edu/tutorial_center/writespeak/download/RhetoricalAnalysis.pdf
What is Creative Writing?
Creative writing is anything where the purpose is to express thoughts, feelings and
emotions rather than to simply convey information.
I’ll be focusing on creative fiction in this post (mainly short stories and novels), but
poetry, (auto)biography, and creative non-fiction are all other forms of creative writing.
Here are a couple of definitions:
Creative writing is writing that expresses the writer’s thoughts and feelings in an
imaginative, often unique, and poetic way.
(Sil.org – What is Creative Writing?)
Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see all
around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but
mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.
(Don DeLillo)
How to get started
Many people think that just because they’ve read a lot of stories (or even if they haven’t!)
they should be able to write one. But as Nigel Watts writes:
There is a common belief that because most of us are literate and fluent, there is no need
to serve an apprenticeship if we want to become a successful wordsmith. … That’s what I
thought until I tried to write my first novel. I soon learnt that a novel, like a piece of
furniture, has its own set of requirements, laws of construction that have to be learnt. Just
because I had read plenty of novels didn’t mean I could write one, any more than I could
make a chair because I had sat on enough of them.
(Nigel Watts, Teach Yourself Writing a Novel)
By all means, if you’re keen, jump straight in and have a go: but don’t be too
disappointed if your first efforts aren’t as good as you’d hoped. To extend Watts’
metaphor, you may find that these early attempts have wonky legs and an unsteady seat.
There are lots of great books aimed at new fiction writers, and I’d strongly recommend
buying or borrowing one of these:
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Wannabe a Writer? (Jane Wenham-Jones)
Teach Yourself … Writing a Novel (Nigel Watts)
How to Write Fiction (and Think About It) (Robert Graham)
On Writing (Stephen King)
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/creative-writing-101/