Characteristics/Associations Spider Diagram
Characteristics/Associations Spider Diagram
Characteristics/Associations Spider Diagram
Characteristics/Associations Spider Diagram
Objectives
By the end of today’s lesson you will be able to:
• Discuss the ways in
which animal imagery
foreshadows the
ending of the novel.
Chapter One
Page 19
•
•
•
•
•
How does Steinbeck strike an immediate contrast
between the two characters? In particular, find words
within each description that are direct ‘opposites’ to
each other.
George and Lennie take very different approaches to
drinking the water. What does each man’s approach say
about his character?
What do George’s first words to Lennie tell us about the
relationship between the two men?
What other examples of imagery (metaphors and similes)
can you find in the extract? How do they give us a
clearer picture of the two men and their environment?
Compare the ways in which the two characters talk.
How does Lennie’s grammar and sentence construction
differ from George’s? What is particularly characteristic
of George’s speech, especially when he ‘gets mad’?
The American Dream
One of the major themes in the book is ‘The
American Dream’, the hope of creating a better
life. Look at the story about their farm that George
and Lennie share. How does this story relate to
‘The American Dream’? Add your ideas to the
image below.
They could
work for
themselves
Describing Lennie
Find quotations on the second and third page that
describe Lennie using characteristics normally
associated with animals.
Why do you think Steinbeck describes Lennie in this
way?
What happened to George and Lennie that meant
they had to leave Weed?
Why do you think Lennie likes hearing the story about
the ranch so much?
Foreshadowing
What is foreshadowing?
A subtle hint about something that will happen later
in the book.
Often a signal that warns of danger for one of the
characters.
A way of creating anticipation and tension for the
reader.
A way of making the reader want to find out what
happens next.
Look at the end of Section One. Can you find an example
of foreshadowing here? What do you think might happen
later on in the book that is being hinted at here?
Foreshadowing and Animals
• Steinbeck provides clues that the novel
will end tragically and, in the tradition
of Greek Tragedy, this outcome is
inevitable from the outset. One of the
unifying devices in providing the sense
of tragic inevitability is the use of
animals and animal imagery, in the title
and in the opening.
Exam Question:
Discuss Steinbeck’s use of
animals/ animal imagery as a
clue to the novel’s outcome.
Discuss Steinbeck’s use of animals/ animal imagery as a clue to the novel’s outcome.
Choose 1 area and use the bullet points as a guide to answering the question.
The Title
Characterisation
The title is faithful to Robert Burns’s poem from
which it is taken. In Burns’s poem "To a mouse"
we read:
In your discussion, you might want to consider
the following:
• The animal imagery used to introduce Lennie
and associations with that animal
• The powerful link between Lennie and the mice
• Lennie’s “blubberin’” when his mouse is thrown
away
The best laid schemes o’ Mice and Men,
Gang aft a-gley (often go wrong)
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain
For promis’d joy."
In your discussion, you might want to consider
the following:
• Steinbeck’s use of the alliterative “Of Mice and
Men” and the context of the title in Burns’s poem
• The fact that the poem is about the struggle for
survival of a fieldmouse
• The fate of the mice in the first chapter
Setting
In your discussion, you might want to consider
the following:
• Where George and Lennie have come from and
what seems to have happened there
• The fact that the rabbits “hurried noiselessly for
cover”
• The disturbance of the animals in their natural,
calm environment
The Theme
In your discussion, you might want to consider
the following:
• The story “about the rabbits”
• What immediately precedes the story “about
the rabbits”
• The significance of the more ‘colourful’
description of the rabbits at the end of the
chapter
Discuss Steinbeck’s use of animals/ animal imagery as a clue to the novel’s outcome.
Choose 1 area and use the bullet points as a guide to answering the question.
The Title
Characterisation
• Alliterative connection between mice and men –
both subject to fate. Context of title gives
biggest clue of tragedy/pessimism for the dream
• Struggle for survival of subject of Burns’s poem
– hints strongly at vulnerability – powerful image
of innocent helplessness against a much
stronger force. Underlined in Lennie’s character
in first chapter
• Simple logic. Dead mice in 1st chapter signals
possible human tragedy given the novel’s title
• Bear metaphor significant. Legendary
strength. Bear hug – over-enthusiastic and
therefore painful – pre-cursor to Curley’s wife
incident. Bear-baiting is effectively the catalyst
which propels the plot towards its tragic
conclusion
• Lennie and mice both vulnerable – mice
physically, Lennie emotionally
• Lennie’s childlike “blubberin’” when mouse is
thrown away is further evidence of his emotional
vulnerability, easily susceptible to exploitation
Setting
The Theme
• Mystery of events in Weed. Lennie petting girl’s
dress, “jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse” –
trouble in the past – recurring cycle of events?
• Rabbits run for cover when situation becomes
dangerous. Parallels with description of how
“we got to hide in a irrigation ditch all day
and…sneak out in the dark.” Probability of this
happening again with tragic result
• Tranquillity of setting is deceptive. Rabbits
presented as innocent, cute and playful in their
natural setting, but hint of calm before the storm
hallucinatory, grotesque rabbit of last chapter
• Rabbits’ story represents the dream that from
the outset seems unrealistic
• Other animals used to paint picture of land
ownership and self-sufficiency, but through
George relating the story to the childlike Lennie,
has the quality of fairytale set against struggle
for survival
• Rabbits description at the end of chapter 1
used to eliminate possibility of any aspect of
dream having any realistic meaning – fantasy
world of the imagination only