Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Lady Lumley’s English Department
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Introduction
This teaching pack is a creative and comprehensive resource that will complement every
English teacher’s tool kit.
Though prepared with the GCSE English Literature examinations in mind, also included are a
range of activities that teachers can use and / or adapt for Controlled Assessment tasks. *
The pack contains a number of reading, writing and speaking and listening activities and
there is considerable opportunity for students to undertake individual, pair and group work.
Many of the tasks and activities allow students to engage with the text in exciting and
dynamic ways, whilst other tasks and activities take a more formal and traditional approach.
Similarly, there is a balance of teacher and student-led tasks, and also a number of
opportunities and suggestions for differentiation. In addition to a wide variety of worksheets,
the pack also contains a number of useful ‘Keeping Track’ resources, which can be used
throughout the unit. Alternatively, they can be used as a revision tool at the end of the unit.
The variety of tasks and activities ensures that students are offered many creative
opportunities and approaches in their study of the text, aiding perception of the author’s
intentions as well as a thorough analysis of the context, themes, characters and literary
techniques.
This printable pack is supported by a comprehensive collection of audio files on the text.**
Using the audio files
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
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Use them as starters / settling tasks as applicable / appropriate
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Use for plenaries as applicable / appropriate
-
Find accompanying images to put into photo story / moviemaker / powerpoint
-
Use them as a guide for students who would like to script and record their own audio
files
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Revision activities
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Annotating and note taking
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Homework and research tasks
Interactive whiteboard
Also available within the collection are a range of themed interactive whiteboard tools
together with a selection of interactive whiteboard resources with pre-loaded demo question
sets / content. A number of question sets and content are also provided as text files for you to
load into selected resources as applicable / appropriate to your students and classes.***
Resources have been created so that they can be used as teacher-led, whole class activities
and / or used by students working independently.
* Individual teachers should confirm the choice and title of controlled assessment tasks with
the relevant awarding body.
** SPOILER ALERT. All of the audio files contain information that might spoil students’
enjoyment of the text.
*** Indicates IWB resources where teachers / students can add their own content / question
sets.
CONTENTS – printable resources
Resource 1:
Introduction
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Resource 2:
Contents
Resource 3:
Assessment Objectives - WJEC
Resource 4:
Assessment Objectives - AQA
Resource 5:
Context: the importance of understanding context
Resource 6:
Context: The Great Gatsby and 1920s America
Resource 7:
Context: a timeline
Resource 8:
Context: John Steinbeck
Resource 9:
Pre-reading prediction activities: book covers
Resource 10:
Pre-reading prediction activities: friends (George and Lennie)
Resource 11:
Style: setting the scene - the Salinas River
Resource 12:
Style: setting the scene - the bunk house. Context: ranch life and
migrant workers
Resource 13:
Grabbing the reader: novel openings and Steinbeck’s techniques
Resource 14:
Style: dialect
Resource 15:
Context: The American Dream
Resource 16:
Character: Curley
Resource 17:
Context: research task on the role of women
Resource 18:
Character: Curley’s wife - initial impressions
Resource 19:
Character: Curley’s wife - the end of the novel
Resource 20:
Character: Casting Curley and Curley’s wife
Resource 21:
Context and theme: research and presentation on disability
Resource 22:
Context: race and prejudice
Resource 23:
Character: Crooks
Resource 24:
Context: ranch life and social hierarchy
Resource 25:
Style: narrative point of view and play-like features
Resource 26:
Style: structure and plot
Resource 27:
Style: foreshadowing
Resource 28:
Style: the ending
Resource 29:
Character: George - debating the ending
Resource 30:
Context: censorship
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Resource 31:
Title
Resource 32:
Theme tree
Resource 33:
Themes: dreams and the American Dream
Resource 34:
Themes: loneliness and companionship
Resource 35:
Keeping track: quotations chapters one to six
Resource 36:
Keeping track: character
CONTENTS - audio files
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Audio file 1:
Chapter one - summary
Audio file 2:
Chapter two - summary
Audio file 3:
Chapter three - summary
Audio file 4:
Chapter four - summary
Audio file 5:
Chapter five - summary
Audio file 6:
Chapter six - summary
Audio file 7:
George
Audio file 8:
Lennie
Audio file 9:
Curley’s wife
Audio file 10:
Curley
Audio file 11:
Candy
Audio file 12:
Crooks
Audio file 13:
Animals, imagery and symbolism
Audio file 14:
Setting
Audio file 15:
Dialect
Audio file 16:
Disability
Audio file 17:
Race
Audio file 18:
Women
Audio file 19:
Dreams and The American Dream
Audio file 20:
The Great Depression
CONTENTS – IWB tools and resources
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
IWB 1:
A themed timer
IWB 2:
Image analysis template ***
IWB 3:
Single spinner ***
IWB 4:
Double spinner ***
IWB 5:
Ranking / grouping / sequencing / sorting template ***
IWB 6:
Dream quiz ***
IWB 7:
Dream quiz question editor
IWB 8:
Activity spinner ***
IWB 9:
Activity spinner editor
IWB 10:
Stop the clock ***
IWB 11:
Stop the clock question editor
IWB 12:
Text analysis template ***
IWB 13:
Slim’s spin quiz ***
IWB 14:
Curley’s ‘Who said that?’ quiz ***
IWB 28:
Curley’s quiz editor instructions
*** Indicates IWB resources where teachers / students can add their own content / question sets.
WJEC English Literature 2010
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Unit 1, Section A:
Prose (different cultures)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Assessment Objectives
AO1
Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate
and support interpretations
AO2
Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and
settings
AO3
Make comparisons and explain links between texts, evaluating writers’ different ways of expressing
meaning and achieving effects
AO4
Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have been influential
and significant to self and other readers in different contexts and at different times
Things you need to know (WJEC)
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
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This unit will be externally examined.
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You have to answer two questions on the play.
-
Part (a) is based on a short extract and will be marked out of ten using AO1 and AO2.
-
For part (b) OR part (c) you will have to write an essay on the novella.
-
You will have a choice of two essay titles. Your essay will be marked out of twenty using
AO1 and AO4.
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You are NOT allowed to take copies of the play into the examination.
-
You will have one hour to complete both of your answers on Of Mice and Men. (Don’t
forget, this is just one section of a two-hour exam.)
-
You should spend about 20 minutes on part (a) and about 40 minutes on part (b) OR part
(c).
-
A notional indication of how the marks are allocated across the Assessment Objectives can
be found in the table below. In practice, however, examiners will give an overall mark
based on appropriate coverage of each Assessment Objective.
WJEC
Question
Mark /
AO1
AO2
a)
/ 10
5
5
b) OR c)
/ 20
7
AO3
AO4
Unit 1,
Section A
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9
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Unit 1, Section B: Exploring Cultures
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Assessment Objectives
AO1
Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate
and support interpretations
AO2
Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and
settings
AO3
Make comparisons and explain links between texts, evaluating writers’ different ways of expressing
meaning and achieving effects
AO4
Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have been influential
and significant to self and other readers in different contexts and at different times
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Things you need to know (AQA)
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This unit will be externally examined.
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You have to answer one question on the novella but the question will be in two parts.
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Part (a) is based on a short extract.
-
For part (b) you will have to write an essay where you link the extract to the novella as a
whole.
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Your answers to part (a) and part (b) will be marked out of thirty using AO1, AO2 and AO4.
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You ARE allowed to take a copy of the book into the examination but your copy MUST NOT
be annotated, and MUST NOT include any other notes or materials.
-
You will have 45 minutes to complete your examination on Of Mice and Men. (Don’t forget,
this is just one section of an exam that lasts one hour, thirty minutes.)
-
A notional indication of how the marks are allocated across the Assessment Objectives can
be found in the table below.
AQA
Question
Mark /
AO1
AO2
Unit 1
Section B
/ 30
11.25
11.25
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AO3
AO4
7.5
11
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Social, Historical and Cultural Context in Of
Why is context important?
Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
It is important to study the period, both in time and place, in which
A large percentage of this unit on the new specifications will assess
texts are written in order to fully understand and appreciate them. In
your knowledge and understanding of the social, historical and
addition to the author’s personal views and beliefs, many events and
cultural context of the novella.
attitudes from the period will have influenced the content, plot and


For WJEC students, approximately 13 out of 20 of your marks
themes of the novella. So, to fully understand Of Mice and Men you
will link to this assessment objective.
will need to understand what happened in America between 1900
For AQA students, approximately 7 out of 30 of your marks
and 1940.
will link to this assessment objective.
Social, Historical and Cultural Context
social issues
MORALS AND ETHICS
TASK
key events
culture
the literary background
work and (un)employment
class and status
the author’s background
politics
HISTORY
poverty and wealth
HEALTH AND WELFARE
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family
gender
To show the importance of context, read the following newspaper
article. You will all understand most of the references within the
piece. However, imagine that this article is sent to that proverbial old
hermit who lives in a cave in Outer Mongolia. (If you don’t
understand this saying about ‘Outer Mongolia’, ask your teacher to
explain the context.) Highlight every reference that our hermit would
need to research in order to fully understand the article.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Facebook fans do worse in exams
Research finds the website is damaging students’ academic performance
FACEBOOK users may feel
socially successful in
cyberspace but they are more
likely to perform poorly in
exams, according to new
research into the academic
impact of the social networking
website.
They found that 65% of Facebook users accessed their account daily, usually
checking it several times to see if they had received new messages. The
amount of time spent on Facebook at each log-in varied from just a few
minutes to more than an hour.
The Ohio report The shows that students who used Facebook had a
“significantly” lower grade point average - the marking system used in US
universities - than those who did not use the site.
Daisy Jones feared the time she spent on
Facebook was threatening her studies, so she
deactivated her account
The majority of students who use Facebook every day are underachieving by
as much as an entire grade compared with those who shun the site.
Researchers have discovered how students who spend their time
accumulating friends, chatting and “poking” others on the site may devote as
little as one hour a week to their academic work.
The findings will confirm the worst fears of parents and teachers. They
follow the ban on social networking websites in many offices, imposed to
prevent workers from wasting time.
About 83% of British 16 to 24-year-olds are thought to use social networking
sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, to keep in touch with friends and
organise their social lives.
“Our study shows people who spend more time on Facebook spend less time
studying,” said Aryn Karpinski, a researcher in the education department at
Ohio State University. “Every generation has its distractions, but I think
Facebook is a unique phenomenon.”
Karpinski and a colleague questioned 219 US undergraduates and graduates
about their study practices and general Internet use, as well as their specific
use of Facebook.
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“It is the equivalent of the difference between getting an A and a B,” said
Karpinski, who will present her findings this week to the annual meeting of
the American Educational Research Association.
She has not yet analysed whether a student’s grades continue to deteriorate
the longer he or she spends on Facebook.
Some UK students have already spotted the potential danger. Daisy Jones, 21,
an undergraduate in her final year at Loughborough University, realised the
time she was spending on Facebook was threatening her grades - prompting
her to deactivate her account.
“I was in the library trying to write a 2,000-word essay when I realised my
Facebook habit had got out of hand,” she said.
“I couldn’t resist going online. You do that, then someone’s photo catches
your eye. Before you know it, a couple of minutes has turned into a couple of
hours and you haven’t written a thing.” Jones is among the few to have
recognised the risks. According to Karpinski’s research, 79% of Facebookusing students believed the time they spent on the site had no impact on their
work.
Facebook said: “There is also academic research that shows the benefits of
services like Facebook. It’s in the hands of students, in consultation with their
parents, to decide how to spend their time.”
Jonathan Leake and Georgia Warren
From The Sunday Times
April 12, 2009
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Researching Context
Though not all of them will be necessary / applicable to every text, there are a wide range of sources that you can use to help you in
your research of the social, historical and cultural context of a text. Select one of the following sources and use it to find five facts
relating to the context of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.
diaries and
eyewitness accounts
museums
LIBRARY
newspapers
art and paintings
tv documentaries and programmes
other fiction
news reports
radio reports
postcards
encyclopedias
music
law and laws
history books
national archives
fashion and period clothing
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census data
antiques
general register office
memorabilia and artefacts
film and film archives
journals
PHOTOGRAPHS
scholarly collections
internet
POSTERS AND ADVERTS
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Context An introduction to 1920s America
SOCIAL, HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT.
___________________________________________________________________________
Music
Follow the link below to
listen to clips of music by
THE ORIGINAL
MEMPHIS FIVE.
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/50668849-the-original-memphis-five

Read this extract from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was first published in
1925, twelve years before Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.
The novel is set in New York during the
Roaring Twenties.
…The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the
air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot,
and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other's names.
The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing
yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key lighter. Laughter is easier minute by
minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word. The groups change more swiftly,
swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath; already there are wanderers,
confident girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable, become for a sharp,
joyous moment the centre of a group, and then, excited with triumph, glide on through the seachange of faces and voices with colour under the constantly changing light.
Suddenly one of these gypsies, in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for
courage and, moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform. A momentary
hush; the orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her, and there is a burst of chatter as the
erroneous news goes around that she is Gilda Gray's understudy from the Follies. The party has
begun.
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Click the snapshot below, or enter the web address provided, to watch a video portraying
life in the 1920s.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=684n8FO68LU
The Roaring Twenties

What were the ‘Roaring Twenties’ like?
Highlight sections from the extract that you feel
capture the spirit and mood of 1920s America and
make a note of your ideas alongside the highlighted
sections.

Look at the following first edition book cover
for Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Use this to make
predictions about the setting, plot, characters and
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
themes in the novel and add to your list of ideas about the ‘Roaring Twenties’.
John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in
1902 where he grew up in a fertile agricultural
valley (known as ‘America’s Salad Bowl’) about
twenty-five miles from the Pacific Coast. Many
of his powerful novels such as, Of Mice and Men,
The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden’have all
been inspired by the Californian landscape and
the history of the land.
Steinbeck's novels can all be classified as social
novels dealing with the economic problems of
rural labour. They tend to focus on trials and
tribulations people experience and often make
the reader root for the underdog. Since Steinbeck grew up in California, he would have witnessed
the aspirations of migrant workers, along with the mistreatment they suffered.
In 1962, Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature for his “realistic and imaginative writing,
combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception.” Both The Grapes of Wrath and
Of Mice and Men won Pulitzer Prizes. They both focused on the plights of poor migrant workers
searching for hope and the American Dream.
 In pairs, discuss what you think John Steinbeck means by this quote:
“The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart
and spirit - for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. I hold that a writer who
does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in
literature.”
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Context
DATE
DESCRIPTION
 Californian Gold Rush: discovery of gold in California sparks a major wave of
1848
migration from the east of the USA (and Europe) to California on the west
coast. One of the towns created as a result of the Gold Rush was Auburn.
 Period of mass immigration into the USA from abroad (c.40 million people),
especially from Europe. People came for many reasons but in particular to
1850-1914
escape poverty and/or political oppression. America was seen as ‘the home
of the free’ and a land of opportunity where hard work will bring success.
Many dreamt of owning and farming their own land.
9.9.1850
 California is declared to be the 31st state in the United States of America
 Pacific Railway Act opens the way for the building of the Transcontinental
1862
Railway, connecting the east and west Coasts via the interior and providing
relatively rapid and cheap transport for goods and people across the United
States
 The emancipation (freeing) of the slaves and the abolition of slavery following
the American Civil War (1863-1865). Many freed slaves moved from the
1865
southern states to the northern cities but some went west where they became
‘sharecroppers’: farmers who were allowed to farm part of someone else’s
land in return for paying a share of their crops to the landowner.
 February 27th: John Steinbeck born in Salinas, California. This was an
intensive agricultural (farming) area of California with Salinas and Soledad
both being important towns. By 1902 there was a large sugar beet industry
and after the First World War the expansion of irrigation projects (bringing
1902
water to the land rather than just relying on rainfall and existing rivers) meant
that during the 1920s the area of the Salinas Valley became the ‘salad bowl’
of America, with lettuce (Green Gold), broccoli and artichokes forming the
major crops. These crops provided jobs for a large number of temporary
workers. However, there are still ranches growing wheat, cattle and sheep
with which Steinbeck would be familiar.
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
 The First World War: America entered the war in 1917 with over 2 million men
going to fight in Europe (although many arrived too late to see much, if any,
actual fighting). Troops returning to the USA brought back German army
1914-1918
Luger pistols as prize souvenirs.
 The war was beneficial for American agriculture and industry as they
exported food, industrial goods and munitions to Europe.
 Russian Revolution – raises fears of communism in the USA (communism =
the violent overthrow of the upper classes by the working class).
 Marcus Garvey starts the first branch of The Universal Negro Improvement
and Conservation Association (UNIA) in the United States. This is an
1917
organisation devoted to improving the status of black people. It is one of a
number of such organisations including the National Association for the
Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) which was founded in 1909.
Racial segregation (black people being prevented from mixing with white
people in public places such as schools, hospitals and parks) was enforced
by laws in many states. Such laws are often referred to as ‘Jim Crow’ laws.
 Prohibition starts in the USA – the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks
(all drinks more than 5% proof) is banned throughout the United States of
America.
 There are race riots against black people in 23 cities across the USA.
1919
 The government cracks down on those suspected of being Communists (or
‘un-American’) – especially trades unionists and immigrants from countries
thought to have links to communism. Strikes are put down by the
government which does not see them as concerned with poverty and
employment but as a threat to the American way of life.
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The Roaring Twenties / the Jazz Age:
 For many people in America (especially the cities such as New York and Chicago) the 1920s
are years of considerable prosperity. American goods are protected from competition with
imports by high tariffs (customs duties) and Americans are encouraged to buy American
produced consumer products such as cars, washing machines, refrigerators and radios.
Henry Ford pioneers the use of the ‘production line’ in his car factories and by 1928 him
‘Model T’ Ford costs only $295, down from $1200 in 1909, and he has sold over 15 million of
them. The increase in car ownership leads to an increase in road building, bringing with it an
increase in the number of trucks and buses.
 It becomes much easier to borrow money to purchase goods, for example through the new
‘hire-purchase’ schemes– getting the goods immediately but paying for them by instalments.
People also borrow money to buy shares in American companies. By 1929 it is possible to
borrow 90% of the money needed to buy shares: the idea is that the share price goes up, the
owner then sells and pays back the money borrowed to buy the shares out of the money he
gets on sale. This only works if the share price continues to rise. However, the ‘consumer
boom’ meant that the profits of American companies rise dramatically and therefore so do the
value of their shares. Share prices also go up because more and more people want to buy
them.
 This is also the decade when the entertainment industry really takes off, particularly the
movies, but also music (especially jazz). Hollywood becomes the centre of the movie
production industry and the ‘movie star’ is born, their fame spread by the increasing numbers
of tabloid newspapers and magazines. Stars such as Rudolf Valentino and Clara Bow (the
first ‘It’ girl) become household names. By 1930 100 million tickets to the movies are sold in
America every week. As jazz and swing become the rage dances become more energetic:
this is the era of the Charleston and the Black Bottom Stomp.
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 Women start to play a growing role in the American economy, both as consumers and
workers. Between 1920 and 1929 the number of working women over the age of 15
increases by 50% to c.10 million (25% of the female population over 15). However, women’s
wages are usually considerably lower than those of men, even where they were doing the
same or similar jobs. Women are subject to criticism for the way they dress and act as skirts
and hair get shorter, cosmetics got cheaper and women become more economically
independent. Women drive and smoke. Fashionable clothes become cheaper and easier to
obtain with a massive increase in chain stores throughout the USA.
 The consumer goods boom does not affect all people equally. By 1929 over 50% of
Americans earn less than $2000 a year, with 40% below the poverty line. Black and
immigrant workers are particularly likely to be affected by low wages and unemployment.
Farming families are far less likely to enjoy the consumer boom as many rural areas still have
no electricity and small farm incomes drop dramatically as the price of wheat falls. In 1920
wheat costs $183 a bushel (a measure of wheat). By 1929 it is 38¢. a bushel. By 1929 farm
incomes are roughly 40% of the national average. During the boom times of the 1920s c.1
million black farm workers lose their jobs. However, in California, which has a more
industrialised form of farming with less small farms, farmers do better.
 Women are given the vote.
1920
 The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) is founded: they fight for civil
rights such as freedom of speech and the right to belong to trades unions.
 America’s first radio station, KSKA, is started.
 Warren G. Harding (Republican) succeeds Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) as
President. Wilson had believed in ‘active’ government. That is that the
government should take an active part in promoting the welfare of its people.
Republicans believed that the government should interfere in people’s lives
1921
as little as possible.
 The Immigration Quota Act imposes a quota system on the number of new
immigrants coming to the USA.
 UNIA has a membership of more than 1 million.
 Fordney-McCumber Act introduces high tariffs (customs duties) on goods
1922
imported into the USA. This made American manufactured goods and
agricultural produce cheaper than those manufactured / grown outside the
USA and protected them against competition.
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 Calvin Coolidge (Republican) become President following the death in office
of Harding. Coolidge believes strongly that the government should interfere
as little as possible in the lives of Americans.
 The Cotton Club opens in Harlem, New York. Harlem was an area of New
York where many black people lived and all the entertainers were black: but
1923
only white customers were allowed in. Many famous black entertainers took
to the stage at the Cotton Club, including Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and
Lena Horne. In the 1930s NBC broadcast radio shows from the Cotton Club
twice a week.
 The Marathon Dance craze starts: competitions were held to see which
couple could dance the longest. In the 1930s these became seen as a way
out of poverty with couples being increasingly exploited by the promoters.
 The National Origins Act increases restrictions on immigration into the USA,
favouring European immigrants.
1924
 Salinas is the wealthiest per capita (i.e. per person) city in America, based on
the lettuce crop which is sent all over the USA using refrigerated rail
transport.
 The Klu Klux Klan, an organisation dedicated to fighting for WASP (white,
anglo-saxon, protestant) supremacy claims to have 5 million members, some
of whom held high political office in southern states such as Alabama. It is
anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-Communist, anti-foreigner and was involved in
incidents such as lynchings (execution of alleged rapists / murderers by a
mob, without a trial) in the southern States. However, its popularity and
membership start to decline from this point.
 July: John Scopes, a teacher in Tennessee, is tried for teaching Charles
1925
Darwin’s theory of evolution. Tennessee was one of a number of states in
the Bible Belt (in the south and mid-west) which banned the teaching of
evolution as being contrary to the biblical history of creation set out in the
Book of Genesis. This becomes known as ‘the Monkey Trial’. It is the first
trial in America to be broadcast on radio (in 2010 Britain still does not
broadcast trials on radio or TV). Scopes was found guilty and fined $100.
This was part of a wider backlash against what was seen as the immorality of
the 1920s. Many such states tried to restrict people’s behaviour in public e.g.
by banning ‘indecent’ swimming costumes.
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 Carl Eric Wickman forms the bus company which will become known as the
Greyhound Corporation. By 1939 the Company will provide over 200 million
1926
miles of travel annually, with 4,750 bus stations and nearly 10,000
employees.
 Death of Rudolf Valentino, one of the great stars of the silent movies.
1927
 The Jazz Singer is the first ‘talkie’.
1928
 Walt Disney produces Mickey Mouse.
 Herbert Hoover (Republican) becomes President. Hoover is a self-made man
who rose from poverty to wealth. He believes strongly that people must take
responsibility for their own lives and should not rely on the Government for
support.
 Immigration restricted to only 150,000 a year with most places reserved for
1929
northern and western Europeans.
 14th February 1929: The St. Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago – members
of the North Side Gang are murdered, probably on Al Capone’s orders.
 16th May 1929: the first American Academy of Motion Pictures’ Awards
ceremony takes place. These are called ‘the Oscars’ by 1939 but no one
really knows why.
Lady Lumley’s English Department
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
 The Wall Street Crash (Saturday 19th October – massive profit taking (selling
shares at a high price to get the maximum amount of profit), leading to fall in
share prices and more panic selling on Sunday 20th as people start to worry
they will lose money.
 Those who can afford it buy shares as the price drops (often borrowing
money to do so) and this means prices rise on Monday / Tuesday as demand
grows again.
 Wednesday 23rd – again there is mass selling at the very end of the day
(shares are only bought and sold during defined period of hours) followed by
panic on Thursday 24th – everyone trying to sell but there are no buyers.
 To try and stop the panic the banks try to support the share market by using
29.10.1929
their money (i.e. the money belonging to their customers) to buy shares and
keep the price up on Friday 25th.
 Monday 28th: more massive selling again and the banks don’t step in to buy.
This continues on 29th but there are no buyers so prices fall and then fall
further AND the buying / selling technology collapses preventing many even
trying to sell shares which are now worthless.
 This leaves many speculators (those who bought hoping to make a quick
profit) ruined as they borrowed money to buy shares expecting them to rise in
value. The shares are worth nothing and they can’t repay what they
borrowed.
 The banks that lent them the money can’t get it back and start to go broke.
Many American companies are now worthless.
Lady Lumley’s English Department
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The 1930s: the Great Depression
 Following on from the Wall Street crash, but not entirely caused by it, there is a major
economic depression in America and elsewhere.
 The 1930s are years of mass unemployment, particularly in agriculture (with small farmers
suffering particularly badly and losing their land when they are unable to repay the money
they borrowed to buy it) and the traditional ‘heavy’ industries of coal, iron and steel.
 Many businesses, including several thousand banks, go bust. There is a cycle of depression:
as one company goes bust and its workers become unemployed, it causes other businesses that relied on that company or its workers for its income - to go bust.
 When banks go bust those who have deposited their savings in that bank lose them. This
starts another cycle as savers in other banks try to withdraw their savings, causing those
banks to collapse.
 There is nothing like unemployment benefit or housing benefit, and no free national health
system (some people had private health insurance, which increased during the 1930s). If you
lose your job, you often lose your home and the whole family ends up on the streets. Many
such families end up in living in cardboard shantytowns which become known as
‘Hoovervilles’.
 During the 1930s more women enter the workforce: but that is because they are much
cheaper than men, with their average wage being 50% that of the average male wage.
 As an antidote to the depression popular entertainment, especially the movies, continues to
grow. Going to the movies provides people with a short period when they could forget their
troubles.
 The Hawley-Smoot Act is passed raising tariffs (customs duties) on imported
goods to an all time high. Other countries react by imposing similar duties on
American goods, including imports of American wheat, which had been a
major export for America during the First World War and the early 1920s.
The surplus wheat can’t be sold at home because the depression means that
many people are struggling even to buy food. This helps to produce a major
1930
depression in farming as surplus wheat stocks build up and prices drop
dramatically. Small farmers and ‘sharecroppers’ are hardest hit. Tenant
farmers can’t pay their rent and farmers who bought land can’t pay back the
loans they took out to buy it. They are evicted.
 This is the first of the drought years in the south and mid-west of the USA,
adding to farmers’ problems.
Lady Lumley’s English Department
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
 Al Capone, probably the most famous Prohibition gangster, who wielded
1931
considerable political power in Chicago, is finally jailed. Not for smuggling
alcohol, or for murdering his rivals, but for not paying his taxes!
 In 1932 20% of small farmers lost their farms as a result of being unable to
repay their loans because of the decrease in prices for agricultural goods.
1932
 The ‘Hobo’ becomes a figure of American legend: in 1932 about 2 million
unemployed, including farmers who have lost their land, are travelling the
railroads looking for work.
 January: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is sworn in as the 32 nd President.
FDR is a Democrat who believes that the government should interfere in
people’s lives to relieve poverty and stimulate employment.
 FDR introduces ‘The New Deal’ to try to get American agriculture and
industry back on its feet. This includes providing food and clothing, schools
and employment for the unemployed. Some work is provided through
construction of roads, public buildings such as schools and hospitals and
other improvement schemes.
 The Agricultural Adjustment Act: farmers who own their own land are paid to
1933
destroy crops and animals to try to raise agricultural prices. Famously the
government paid for 6 million piglets which are then killed with some meat
going to provide free food for the unemployed. However, payments are only
made to landowners so many ‘sharecroppers’ and tenant farmers lose their
livelihoods and head for the cities to swell the ranks of the unemployed there.
 December: Prohibition is ended. It hadn’t worked! Organised crime had
made a fortune through smuggling liquor in from Canada and running
‘speakeasies, while many people set up their own ‘stills’ to brew illegal
alcohol (and many suffered serious illness, including blindness, when this
went wrong). As organised crime increased so did gang warfare. It did give
us Elliot Ness and the Untouchables, though.
 Following a long period of drought (exceptionally dry weather) the mid-West
(especially Oklahoma and Arkansas) are hit by dust clouds as the thin, dry
1934
soil is blown away: these areas become known as ‘The Dust Bowl’. Many
farmers are forced to abandon their land, with approximately 350,000 –
400,000 passing over the Rocky Mountain ranges to the west, especially
California, to seek work there.
Lady Lumley’s English Department
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
 FDR’s government provides more help to the unemployed, American industry
and agriculture, including providing loans to sharecroppers and tenant
farmers to help them buy their land, and labour camps for migrant farm
workers.
1935 - 37
 In 1936 Americans get the right to join trades unions and join together to
bargain for higher wages.
 1936 is also the year of the Salinas lettuce strike, causing lettuce prices to
rise over the whole of the USA. Salinas supplies 90% of the country’s
lettuces.
 Of Mice and Men is published. Steinbeck finished writing it in 1936, just
1937
before the lettuce strike. Set near Soledad in the Salinas Valley where
Steinbeck was born.
 Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath. In this book he deals with
migrants from the Dust Bowl who go to work in the vineyards of California.
He also describes ‘Hoovervilles’.
1939
 The Second World War starts in Europe but America does not enter the War
until 1941, when Pearl Harbour is bombed by the Japanese and then Hitler
declares war on America.
Lady Lumley’s English Department
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Book covers and posters
FOCUS
Pre-reading prediction activities. To analyse a range of the book and film covers /
posters for Of Mice and Men and to use these to make predictions about the novella.
Task
Look at the following book covers and posters for John Steinbeck’s Of Mice

and Men. Use one or more of them to make predictions about:

setting

plot

characters

themes

Working on your own, make a note of your ideas.

In pairs or small groups, discuss your observations. Share your ideas with
your teacher and the rest of the class.
Lady Lumley’s English Department
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Lady Lumley’s English Department
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Friends
 Read the conversation below and then, in pairs, rehearse a performance of the dialogue.
Before you start rehearsing, consider the questions on the next page.
PERSON 1:
When I think of the swell time I could have without you, I go nuts. I never get
no peace.
PERSON 2:
You want I should go away and leave you alone?
PERSON 1:
Where the hell could you go?
PERSON 2:
Well I could. I could go off in the hills there. Some place I’d find a cave.
PERSON 1:
Yeah? How’d you eat. You ain’t got sense enough to find nothing to eat.
I’d find things. I don’t need no nice food with ketchup. I’d lay out in the sun
PERSON 2:
and nobody’d hurt me. An’ if I foun’ a mouse, I could keep it. Nobody’d take
it away from me.
PERSON 1:
PERSON 2:
PERSON 1:
I been mean, ain’t I?
If you don’t want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away
any time.
No – look! I was jus’ foolin’. ’Cause I want you to stay with me.
Lady Lumley’s English Department
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Friends
 Friendship is one of the main themes in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and
the complex nature of the theme can be seen in this short extract of dialogue which
has been taken from the opening chapter of the novella.
What can you work out about the friendship and relationship between these two
characters? *Explain your ideas and predictions.*
What are your impressions of person one? Make a list of as many words as you
can.
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What are your impressions of person two? Make a list of as many words as you can.
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What is the connection between these two men? Why are they together?
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Which of the men is the cleverest?
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Lady Lumley’s English Department
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Which of the men is in charge?
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Which of the men depends on the other?
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What do you notice about the balance of power and control in the relationship?
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Can we learn anything about the men from the way that they talk?
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Where do you think they are and where might they be going?
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In addition to the theme of friendship, what other themes, ideas and issues might be
important in the novella?
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Lady Lumley’s English Department
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
 Read the conversation below. It is taken from the next chapter in the novella.
Review your list of questions from earlier.
 In view of this second extract of dialogue, your ideas about some of the questions
might have changed. Review your answers from earlier and make a note of any new
ideas and thoughts you have.
PERSON 1:
…if you get in any kind of trouble, you remember what I told you to do?
PERSON 2:
If I get in any trouble, you ain’t gonna let me tend the rabbits.
PERSON 1:
PERSON 2:
PERSON 1:
PERSON 2:
That’s not what I meant. You remember where we slep’ last night? Down by
the river?
Yeah. I remember. Oh sure I remember! I go there an’ hide in the brush.
Hide till I come for you. Don’t let anybody see you. Hide in the brush by the
river. Say that over.
Hide in the brush by the river, down in the brush by the river.
Lady Lumley’s English Department