English Literature and Film Unit 5: Of Mice and Men Elements of Fiction

English Literature and FilmUnit 5: Of Mice and MenElements of Fiction Scott DeWaelsche 5/21/2013-5/23/2013

Class Site http://sdewaelscheusw.weebly.com/

Class Break • We will shorten our breaks to five minutes each. One at 3:20, and one at 4:20.

Participation Portfolio • Keep all of your written work from today until the end of the semester. • Any class notes and written answers to study questions can be included in your portfolio. • Easy points. • Keep your papers neat, without folds. • Use A-4 paper only. • Staple all pages together to be turned in on the day of the final exam.

Group Presentation • Each group will work on a group presentation. • Presentations will be given in the last three weeks of the semester. • Choose one of the Three films for the second half for your presentation. • If you use a PowerPoint, don’tcopy/paste from a website.

Presentation • PowerPoints should not have too many words, but pictures are good. • The speaker will then tell us the information while showing the PowerPoint. • You can choose what you want to talk about on the presentation. • All students should speak and participate. • Bring a laptop (notebook computer) to class to work on PPT in class.

Presentation Ideas • Elements of fiction analysis. • Compare and contrast two films. • Compare and contrast two characters from different films. • Compare different film versions (ex: The old Frankenstein movie and the new one). • Compare the book with the movie. • OR-Choose your own idea!

Presentation • Presentation date for all presentations: Thursday May 30 Thursday June 13* When would you group like to present? *Final Exam day **No class June 6

Presentation If you do not have a full group to work with, I will place you in another group. Please let me know if you your group members are absent. If some of your group members are present, you will work with them. Please don’t try to change groups on your own.

Presentation Rules • Bring one printed copy of your PPT to give me for the group. • Speak, don’t read. • The audience should be listening. • Do not talk or read or sleep or do homework. • Listening to other presentations is part of your grade. If your group isn’t listening, it will hurt your grade.

Presentation Rules • Listening to other presentations is part of your grade. If your group isn’t listening, it will hurt your grade. • Bring the PPT on a USB drive. • Come to class a little early to set up the PPT on the computer.

Of Mice and Men • Written by: John Steinbeck • Type of Work: novel • Genres: parable; Great Depression (Film: drama) • First Published: 1937 • Setting: a ranch • Main Characters: George Milton; Lennie Small; Candy; Curley; Curley's wife; Slim; Crooks

Film Adaptation • A film adaptation is the transfer of a written work, in whole or in part, to a feature film. • A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film. • Many people who love the book want film makers to “copy” the book and not change it.

Film adaptation • Many people who love the book want film • makers to “copy” the book and not change it. • This is called “being faithful to the source.” • Some filmmakers are faithful to the source, but others change it a lot. • It all depends on the interpretations of the filmmaker.

Film adaptation: three types • Literal Translation: reproduces the plot and all of its details as closely as possible to the book. This is an attempt to copy the book to film. • Example: Harry Potter

Film adaptation: three types • Traditional Translation: Keeps the overall traits of the book (plot, setting, etc.) but changes some details that the filmmaker thinks should be changed. • Example: The Black Stallion

Film adaptation: three types • Radical Translation: reshapes the book in extreme and revolutionary ways. The filmmaker interprets the literature and makes the film an independent artistic work. • Example: Gangs of New York, Romeo and Juliet

Of Mice and Men Foreshadowing is an advance sign or warning of what is to come in the future. It is a hint of what may come later in the story. Steinbeck used foreshadowing in Of Mice and Men. Watch the beginning of the film and look for possible examples of foreshadowing. Make predictions about what will happen later in the story.

Group discussion (5/16) • What predictions can you make about the story based on foreshadowing? Be ready to discuss with examples from the film. • Make a Venn diagram comparing the characters George and Lennie.

Foreshadowing of the accidental killing of Curley’s Wife • Lennie being run out of Weed for the incident involving the girl in the red dress • Lennie petting the dead mouse • George telling Lennie he will get him a puppy because he pets mice too hard and kills them • Lennie killing his puppy

Foreshadowing: Candy’s dog and Lennie • The killing of Candy’s dog anticipates the killing of Lennie • Candy’s regret that he didn’t kill his old dog himself, which anticipates George’s decision to shoot Lennie • Carlson’s idea to shoot the dog in the back of the head is later used by George on Lennie so he won’t feel any pain. • Candy’s fear that when he is no longer wanted, someone will abandon him-connected to George’s fear of abandoning Lennie.

Foreshadowing: Trouble is coming • Curley: Curley doesn’t like Lennie right from the beginning and warns Lennie to avoid him. This foreshadows the later fight in the bunkhouse. • Curley’s wife: George also sees that the wife is lonely and flirtatious and warns Lennie to stay away from her. This foreshadows the problem that occurs when Lennie finally spends time with her.

Characters

George • George is the protagonist and one of the two main characters in Of Mice and Men. A compassionate, kind, responsible, patient, and understanding man, he faithfully watches out for Lennie, his retarded friend and constant companion. When Lennie gets into trouble, George always helps him find a solution or get away.

George • George is also shown to be a thinking person. He knows he must discipline Lennie in order to help him, and he is often seen telling Lennie what he has done wrong and what he must do to improve. • He is also a planner, telling Lennie where he should go if there is trouble on the ranch. • He also works hard to make the dream of owing a ten-acre farm become a reality.

George • Sometimes George is portrayed as an angry man, for he gets frustrated with Lennie’s slowness. Although he scolds and even screams at him, he is never intentionally mean or cruel.

Lennie • Lennie is George’s friend and constant companion, who is mentally retarded and highly dependent on George. • He suffers from a child’s mentality within a giant’s body. He is innocent and forgetful like a child. He is also attracted to small, soft things because of his child-like, gentle nature.

Lennie • Unfortunately, he often harms the things he loves accidentally. As a huge man with heavy arms and powerful hands, he does not know or understand his own strength. • Lennie idolizes George, his kind caretaker, almost like a god. • Lennie never means to cause problems.

Lennie • Throughout the book Lennie is portrayed as a dreamer. He longs to go and live on a farm with George, away from the pressures and frustration of a society that always gets him in trouble. • He constantly dreams of raising soft rabbits to be his pets on the farm.

Candy • Candy is a very old ranch hand who is crippled and lonely. • Steinbeck paints him as the sad, stereotyped symbol of old age, a man whose life is void of friends and hope. His dog, who is his only companion, is very much like him, old and crippled

Candy • When the dog is dead, Candy truly has nothing, no reason for existence. • Then he overhears George and Lennie discussing their dream of owning a farm. Candy asks permission to join them and offers his life savings to help purchase the land. He wants to live his last days with a feeling of peace and belonging. • At the end of his days, Candy does not want to be treated like his old dog.

Curley’s Wife • Curley’s wife, the only woman on the ranch, is the destruction of Lennie and the dream. She is a vulgar woman who wears too much make-up and flirts with every ranch hand. • Like all the characters on the ranch, other than Lennie and George, Curley’s wife feels very lonely and isolated.

Curley’s wife • She constantly looks for company and longs for an emotional attachment, seeking it in all the wrong ways. • It is strongly hinted that she has committed adultery, for Curley is always looking for her, as if he is afraid she is with another man. It is her loneliness and her flirtatious ways that lead her to her death.

Curley • Curley is the boss’ son, who is short but has a large temper. To make up for his small size, he became a lightweight boxer. Now he constantly tries to pick fights, especially with people bigger than himself. Curley’s attitude suggests that he dislikes everyone he meets. • He is overly possessive of his wife and suspects that every man on the ranch desires her.

Slim • Compared to his co-workers, Slim is confident in his conduct and clear in his speech. As a result, he is treated with respect on the ranch. Steinbeck portrays him as a thinker. • He is quite surprised to see the loyalty and companionship of George and Lennie. • He is a good judge of people and quickly understands, that in spite of his size, “Lennieain’t mean”.

Setting The setting is almost as small and confined as the plot; it occurs over a period of three days in four specific locations: a wooded area next to the Salinas River, a bunkhouse on the ranch, the stable worker’s room on the ranch, and the main barn on the ranch.

Setting: Importance But there is a larger background to the novel's setting: the Great Depression, which left people all over the country (especially men) poor and desperate for work. This poverty makes the characters suspicious and distrustful: there isn't enough work and money for everyone. In this world of suspicion and isolation, Lennie and George's friendship seems even more remarkable—and even more doomed.

Setting So the setting is connected to the conflict in the story: Lennie and George are looking for work in the Great Depression. The location and the time remind us of the difficulty of life for the two characters.

Plot: Conflict • There are several conflicts in Of Mice and Men. The conflict between the ranch hands (workers) and Curley their boss' son. (man vs. man) • Set in the depression the central tension revolves around men needing, finding and then securing a work life in rural America. (man vs. society)

Plot: Conflict • Another main conflict is George’s conflict with Lennie. George thinks about how easy life would be without him. Should he leave him? (man vs. himself) • Should he shoot Lennie in the end? (man vs. himself)

Themes and Symbols • Work with your groups to make a list of themes and symbols you found in the story. • Be prepared to explain your ideas with examples from the film. • Write one example of foreshadowing (clues about a future event in the story)

Themes • The value of male friendship - The men in Of Mice and Men desire to come together in a way that would allow them to be like brothers to one another. That is, they want to live with one another’s best interests in mind, to protect each other, and to know that there is someone in the world dedicated to protecting them.

Themes • Dreams give life meaning (no matter how impossible they are) - Most of the characters in Of Mice and Men admit, at one point or another, to dreaming of a different life. • Curley’s wife dreams of being a movie star, George and Lennie dream of owning a farm, and Candy dreams of joining them. • Most realize that in the end these dreams are impossible.

Themes • The pain of loneliness- All the main characters, including George, Lennie, Candy, Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Slim, express the sadness caused by their feelings of loneliness. • The itinerant farm worker of the Great Depression found it nearly impossible to establish a fixed home and were lonely. • George and Lennie are different because they have each other.

Themes • Some other themes in Of Mice and Men could be connected to racism, mental handicap, treatment of women, and meanness.

Symbols • George and Lennie’s Farm • The farm that George constantly describes to is one of the most powerful symbols in the book. It seduces not only the other characters but also the reader, who, like the men, wants to believe in the possibility of the free, ideal life it promises. Candy and Crooks hope that Lennie and George will let him live there too. A paradise for men who want to be masters of their own lives, the farm represents the possibility of freedom, self-reliance, and protection from the cruelties of the world.

Symbols • Lennie’s Puppy • Lennie’s puppy is one of several symbols that represent the victory of the strong over the weak. Lennie kills the puppy accidentally, as he has killed many mice before, because he can’t control his own strength. Although no other character can match Lennie’s physical strength, the huge Lennie will soon meet a fate similar to that of his small puppy. Like an innocent animal, Lennie is unaware of the vicious, predatory powers that surround him.

Symbols • Candy’s Dog • In the world Of Mice and Men describes, Candy’s dog represents the fate awaiting anyone who has outlived his or her purpose. Candy’s sentimental attachment to the animal—his plea that Carlson let the dog live for no other reason than that Candy raised it from a puppy—means nothing at all on the ranch. Although Carlson promises to kill the dog painlessly, his insistence that the old animal must die supports a cruel natural law that the strong will dispose of the weak. Candy fears that he himself is nearing an age when he will no longer be useful at the ranch, and be kicked out with nowhere to go.

Link for more information: http://www.slideshare.net/bmcqueen2/of-mice-and-men-powerpoint-3966831

English Literature and Film Unit 5: Of Mice and Men Elements of Fiction