Mice and Men

1. Of Mice and Men
Who is your best friend?
What makes them your best friend?
Who is your best friend?
What makes them your best friend?

2. Loneliness
Imagine you live in a place where people didn’t
really have friends.
People looked out for themselves.
Most men travelled from one place to another,
working outdoors in the fields and leaving to
look for another job once the work was done.
What would be the effect of having
no friends?
What would be the effect of having
no friends?

3. Today’s Aims
To understand the context of the novel.
To identify features of Steinbeck’s
descriptive writing style.
To identify features of Steinbeck’s
descriptive writing style.

4. How would you feel?
• No friends
• No permanent home
• Travelling constantly to look for work
• Once the work’s done, you’ve got to
travel again and look for more.
Is this a real situation for any people today?Is this a real situation for any people today?

5. Migrant workers
Migrant = you move around
What do you think a ‘migrant
worker’ is?
Why might a migrant worker have
no real friends?

6. 1920s America
• No friends
• No permanent home
• Travelling constantly to look for work
• Once the work’s done, you’ve got to
travel again and look for more.
Most men lived like this as there was a recession on
and there was hardly any work.
These men were called ‘migrant workers’.
Most men lived like this as there was a recession on
and there was hardly any work.
These men were called ‘migrant workers’.

7. Quick Quiz
Read this info:
• There was a stock market crash in America in 1929.
Money became worth hardly anything, which meant
that employers didn’t have enough to pay for
permanent workers.
• The fruit growers couldn’t afford to pay people to
help pick the fruit in their orchards.
• Many people were homeless and desperate for work.
• Communities did not want poverty-stricken
wanderers settling down and becoming a drain on
their area.

8. Quick Quiz
1. What happened in 1929?
2. How did the Depression affect fruit
growers?
3. Why were plenty of workers available
at harvest time?
4. Why did workers have to move on when
the harvest was over?

9. Swap and check
1. There was a stock market crash and money
became worth hardly anything.
2. The fruit growers couldn’t afford to pay
people to help pick the fruit in their orchards.
3. Many people were homeless and desperate for
work.
4. Communities did not want poverty-stricken
wanderers settling down and becoming a drain
on their area.

10. The opening of the book
Steinbeck’s writing style is a bit like a
play.
He sets the scene very carefully at the
beginning of each chapter, as though he
is describing a theatre stage.

11. One aspect of his style is his vivid descriptions of
people and places, which appeal to both the senses
of sight and hearing. He uses a variety of linguistic
devices to achieve this.
Appeals to the sense of
sight with:
•Carefully chosen
adjectives
•Use of colour
•Attention to tiny detail
•Simile
•Metaphor
Appeals to the sense of
sight with:
•Carefully chosen
adjectives
•Use of colour
•Attention to tiny detail
•Simile
•Metaphor
Appeals to the sense of
hearing with:
•Alliteration
•Onomatopoeia
•Repetition of
words/phrases
•Carefully chosen verbs
Appeals to the sense of
hearing with:
•Alliteration
•Onomatopoeia
•Repetition of
words/phrases
•Carefully chosen verbs
On your handout, annotate the ‘sight’ bullet points in one
colour and the ‘hearing’ ones in another.
On your handout, annotate the ‘sight’ bullet points in one
colour and the ‘hearing’ ones in another.

12. Analysis!
1. On page 19, Steinbeck describes the rabbits as
‘little gray, sculptured stones’. Write
this quotation into your books and in pairs, try to
analyse why they are described like this? Be ready
to feedback to the rest of us!

13. Questions
1. Page 18: list five details which make this a peaceful
and natural setting.
2. Page 19: how does this change when ‘the sound of
footsteps on crisp sycamore leaves’ is heard?
So, it’s a peaceful, natural setting. When men arrive
there is is disturbed. What could Steinbeck be
trying to tell us?
Finished? Which words/phrases create pleasant images?
Which words/phrases create images of decay?
Finished? Which words/phrases create pleasant images?
Which words/phrases create images of decay?

14. Today’s aims were:
Write down what you did to meet today’s aims.
How did the lesson help you?
Write down what you did to meet today’s aims.
How did the lesson help you?
To understand the context of the novel.
To identify features of Steinbeck’s descriptive
writing style.
To identify features of Steinbeck’s descriptive
writing style.