‘Of Mice and Men’ Contextual Knowledge

AO1 Demonstrate a close knowledge and understanding of texts, maintaining a

critical style and presenting an informed personal engagement.

AO4 Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in
which they were written.

Setting the scene

● John Steinbeck’s real life experiences influence his writing.

● First published in 1937.
● The book was so famous when it was first published that he wrote it in play form to
be performed. The play won an award.
● Steinbeck gave a first hand account of conditions in California as a migrant worker.
● The 1929 Wall Street Crash caused California to flood with migrant workers. Men
travelled around alone to work poorly paid contracts.
● Lennie and George were directed to work by the government. Lennie and George
shared the vision of migrant workers; they wanted their own land and to be able to
settle down.
● Of Mice and Men is a story of what happened - the Great Depression.

Summary of the plot

Steinbeck tells an unusual story in a convincing manner, without explaining in any detail
what happened. It was nobody’s fault in particular that events turned out as they did. It was
all down to the specific combination of circumstances which go to make up the plot. The
story preaches the dangers of believing in the American Dream, while teaching us the value
of friendship and companionship.In essence, Of Mice and Men is as much a story about the
nature of human dreams and aspirations and the forces that work against them.

Two migrant agricultural labourers, George Milton and Lennie Small, seek work during the
depression as they share the goal of buying a place of their own where they can be incharge
of their own lives. start work at a new ranch after the left when Lennie was accused of rape.
Their dream was to save up enough money to buy land so they could escape poverty.
Curley's wife married Curley because she wanted an exciting life. After Lennie accidentally
killed Curley’s wife, Curley hunts him down with a lynch mob.

Main character’s

● The relationship between Lennie and George is unlikely. Lennie cannot get a job
without George. George gets companionship out of his company.
● Curley’s wife failed to escape loneliness. She cannot escape her sexual image, but
plays along with it to get attention from anyone, including those at the bottom of the
hierarchy. Curley's wife is the sex object.
● Crook’s does not live with others, is isolated and openly referred to as the n word.
Signals black men were physically and verbally abused by white men. Crook’s the
black guy.
● Candy the old ranch hand. The harsh reality is nobody wants Candy as he is old and
will slow them down.
 ● Curley is privileged as the boss's son - he is a bully and a boxer - but he is a victim of
his circumstances. He has to show himself as a masculine, aggressive person.
● Slim is the top hand, remains detached, his ear heard more than what was said to
him - partly due to his position on the ranch - represents a sympathetic influence in
the hostile nature of the ranch.
● Both heroes and villains were common victims of the harshness of the times.

Main Themes

● Loyalty
● Friendship
● Hostile economic environment of America/harsh realities of life- the period the novel
is set.
● Loneliness and isolation - experienced by all characters
● The dream of a better life

Language and style

● The title was originally Something that happened. The published title originates from
a line in the famous poem ‘To a Mouse’ by the Scottish poet, Robert Burns’,which
roughly translates to ‘no matter how well we may plan the future, things often go
wrong’.
● Most of the action is curtailed into a few paragraphs, with narrative presented through
detailed character descriptions and vivid dialogue.
● In the novel, there are no chapter headings, only six sections reflecting the six
scenes of the play. Chapter headings would have broken the flow of the story,
interrupting the growing sense of tension and climax.
● Main action takes place in a limited number of places: the bunk house or in the barn.
This maintains focus and thread of the story, giving us a strong feeling of how the
protagonists were trapped by their situation.
● The narrative follows a chronological structure with no flashback or jumps forward
into the future, to achieve effect.
● Narrative style emphasises Steinbeck’s power as a storyteller, evident in the final
section of the novel, with Lennie’s death verging almost being sentimental.
● The use of figurative language creates an atmosphere of reality.
● His use of metaphor and simile in the opening and final sections, specifically his
descriptions of the natural world presents us with a clear picture of character and
setting, shown through the vivid description of the heron eating the water snake in
the closing pages.
● Steinbeck uses irony in relation to the failure of the dream of the main characters to
buy their own ranch. The ironic twist is emphasised at the end of the book through
Lennie asking George to recount to him what ‘their ranch’ will be like when they
eventually buy it.
● Non-standard form of english is used throughout the play - the use of dialect and
colloquial language is that of an itinerant worker, helping to add to the realism of the
story and creating a strong impact on the reader.