th November 2012 Todays LO T o understand the social and historical context of the novel of Mice and Men 1 Copy down the date title and LO 2 Register Challenge What if anything do you know about the novel Of Mice and Men ID: 493409
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Slide1
Thursday 8
th November 2012Today’s LO: To understand the social and historical context of the novel “of Mice and Men”
1 Copy down the date, title and L/O
2 – Register Challenge. What, if anything, do you know about the novel “Of Mice and Men”
3: Starter:
Write down anything at all that you know about America’s history.
Things I know about America:Slide2
Why is context important?
What does this article tell us about society today?Slide3
Context: An introduction to 1920s America
Social, Historical and Cultural context.A time of massive change
in the world!Slide4
Read the 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 sea-change 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.
Life in the 1920s
TASK
: 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.
The Roaring Twenties
Stick in your bookSlide5
1930s:
Life ChangedWhat words does this newspaper use to show how bad the situation was?Slide6
THE GREAT DEPRESSION!
On Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, triggering the Great Depression, the worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world. It spread from the United States to the rest of the world, lasting from the end of 1929 until the early 1940s. With banks failing and businesses closing, more than 15 million Americans (one-quarter of the workforce) became unemployed. Slide7
Watch this
short clipWhat was life like in America after the Wall Street Crash?Why were so many of them queuing?What kind of work were the men looking for?
How would you describe their lives?Slide8
Historical Context
The depression also led to a drop in the market price of farm crops, which meant that farmers were forced to produce more goods in order to earn the same amount of money. Slide9
THE FARMERS
To make matters worse, America was also hit by a series of droughts and many farms could no longer operate.
How
would the droughts mean there was more unemployment?Slide10
The Dust Bowl
The increase in farming activity across the Great Plains states caused the precious soil to erode. This erosion, coupled with a seven-year drought that began in 1931, turned once fertile grasslands into a ‘desert like’ region known as the Dust Bowl. Slide11
Dust Bowl PlainsSlide12Slide13
WHAT DID
PEOPLE DO?.People heard that, in California, the soil was still good and there was plenty of room and opportunity for work.
If
you were a farmer from Oklahoma in the 1930s what would you do?Slide14
The History of Migrant Farmers in California
During the Great Depression, economic and ecological forces (the Dust Bowl) brought many rural poor and migrant agricultural workers from the Great Plains states, such as Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, to California. Slide15
The American Dream…
Hundreds of thousands of farmers packed up their families and few belongings, and headed for California, which, for numerous reasons, seemed like a promised land. The state’s mild climate promised a longer growing season and, with soil favourable to a wider range of crops, it offered more opportunities to harvest.Slide16
… is shattered!!
Despite these promises, though, very few found it to be the land of opportunity and plenty of which they dreamed. Slide17Slide18
Mini Plenary
Making predictions:Consider what we have looked at and discussed this lesson.
This is the America that the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ is set in.
Look at the image of a front cover
What do you think this novella will be about?
Write down three statements.Slide19
What is the American Dream?
America has always been seen as the Land of Opportunity, partly because immigrants from Europe saw it as a place of freedom, a place to begin a new life, a place for real possibilities and wealth for all.This belief in America as a country where ordinary people could create a better life for themselves is often referred to as “The American Dream”.Slide20
From the 17
th century, where the 1st settlers arrived, immigrants dreamed of a better life in America.People went there to escape from persecution, to make a new life for themselves and their families.For many the dream became a nightmare with the horrors of slavery, of the American Civil War, the growth of the slums and the corruption of the government. This led to many shattered hopesFor many the dream ended with the Wall Street crash in 1929.Slide21
Historical Timeline
Financial Crash
Banks, Factories close, farming collapses
1929
1931
1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes president.
1936
The ‘New Deal’ - support for unemployment.
1937
Of Mice and Men is published.Slide22Slide23
Of Mice and Men
Look up the following words in the dictionary and write their definition:-ItinerantJunctures
Debris
Morosely
BrusquelySlide24
About The Author
John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas, California, a region that became the setting for much of his fiction, including Of Mice and Men. As a teenager, he spent his summers working as a hired hand on neighbouring ranches, where his experiences of rural California and its people impressed him deeply. Slide25
John Steinbeck
He wrote the book ‘ Of Mice and Men’ in 1936Like ‘Of Mice and Men’ many of his books deal with the lives and problems of working people.Many of his characters in his books are immigrants who went to California looking for work or a better life.Slide26
American Dream in Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck wanted to explore the themes of power, ownership and control and their effect upon ordinary people.Those people strived for a better life, and had hopes and dreamsThe two main characters, Lennie and George’s dream is significant because it tells us something about the culture that has created them.Slide27
Write this in your books:
Steinbeck's novels can all be classified as, “social novels dealing with the economic problems of rural labour.”Slide28
The Title
The title comes from a poem by a Scottish poet Robert Burns.‘The best laid schemes o’ mice and menGang aft agley (often go wrong)And leave us nought but grief and painFor promised joy!’Slide29
So Why The Title Of Mice and Men
?Inspired by a poem written by Robert Burns:-From the poem: The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men / Gang aft agleyMeaning:
No matter how hard or well we plan for something, our plans can often fail to become reality...or worse, they can end up going terribly wrong.
What 3 predictions can you make about the book from this poem alone?
Write them down.
1.
2.
3. Slide30
Fact or Fiction?
Although Of Mice and Men is a fictional story it is deeply rooted in historical fact.The high unemployment resulted in many people travelling to find work.
They could be hired and fired at the boss’ will (farm owners were very powerful)
“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.”
In pairs, discuss what you think John Steinbeck means by this quote: