Of Mice and Men

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Of Mice and Men

• By John Steinbeck
• 4 weeks

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Pictures

• Modern Movie

• The Novel

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Objective

• To understand the historical background to this
  novel.
• Time Period
• Author
• Setting
• Literary Movement

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State Standards

• Reading1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and
  Systematic Vocabulary Development
• 2.0 Reading Comprehension
• 3.0 Literary Response and Analysis
• Literary Criticism
• 3.9 Analyze the philosophical arguments
  presented in literary works to determine whether
  the authors' positions have contributed to the
  quality of each work and the credibility of the
  characters. (Philosophical approach)
• Writing1.0 Writing Strategies

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Assessments

• Daily Discussions
• Say/Mean/Matter entries
• Class Activities
• Quizzes
• Final Exam
• Final Project

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Essential Questions and Understandings

• Questions

• Understandings

• What does it mean to be a true friend?
• Why are people treated differently because they
  defy the status quo? (ex mental/physical
  handicaps, gender, race, religion, status, sexual
  preference, etc.)
• What are the consequences of stereotyping?

• Being a true friend requires unconditional love
  and support although, lifes many obstacles can
  test our boundaries.
• Stereotyping is a social dynamic, where there is
  typically a weaker being it may cause internal
  and external conflicts.

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Important Terms to Know

• Subjective
• Marginalization
• Stereotyping
• Plusthe vocabulary list.

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Time PeriodWhat was going on in 1937?

• Roosevelt is President of the United States.
• Dust Storm Strikes West and Midwest
• Economy enters a second depression
• The "little steel strike" shuts down dozens of
  plants in seven states affecting 90,000 workers
• Chrysler Strike pulls 63,000 off production lines

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1937 continued

• The Great General Motors Strike starts and
  spreads to six states pulling 45,000 men off
  production lines
• From Dawn to Sunset- a film created by General
  Motors that celebrates American industry and the
  industrial worker. Made during the decade's most
  intense anti-industrial protests

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1937 continued

• Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck was published ?
• July 2 Amelia Earhart's plane goes down some
  35-100 miles off the coast of Howland Island. She
  is presumed to have died attempting to be the
  first woman to fly around the world
• NY Yankees d. NY Giants (4-1)to win World Series

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1937 continued

• January 24 Goering orders Heydrich to organize
  emigration of Jews still residing in Germany.
• On January 27 Chancellor Hitler demands return
  of German colonies
• Hitler formally abrogates the Treaty of
  Versailles.
• A decision is made that all German colored
  children are to be illegally sterilized.

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1937 continued

• April 11 A new order from the German Ministry of
  the Interior deprives all Jews of municipal
  citizenship
• Most historians agree the second "world war"
  started in 1937 or in 1939. The most commonly
  accepted date is either September 1st or 3rd,
  1939.

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-

• John Steinbeck's Nobel Prize Acceptance
  Speech1962
• "Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of
  human need for it and it has not changed except
  to become more needed. The skalds, the bards, the
  writers are not separate and exclusive. From the
  beginning, their functions, their duties, their
  responsibilities have been decreed by our
  species...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. In the endless
  war against weakness and despair, these are the
  bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I
  hold that a writer who does not passionately
  believe in the perfectibility of man has no
  dedication nor any membership in literature."

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John Steinbeck

• The older Steinbeck

• The younger Steinbeck

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Biographical Information

• John Ernest Steinbeck was born in Salinas,
  California, on February 27, 1902 of German and
  Irish ancestry.
• During summers he worked as a hired hand on
  nearby ranches, nourishing his impression of the
  California countryside and its people.
• Steinbeck attended Stanford University.
• He was an English major (whoo hoo!)

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Continued

• He left Stanford permanently in 1925 to pursue
  his writing career in New York.
• It was not until he went back to California that
  he was able to publish his work.
• During World War II, Steinbeck was a war
  correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune.
• Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962

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Continued

• Throughout his life John Steinbeck remained a
  private person who shunned publicity.
• He died December 20, 1968, in New York City and
  is survived by his third wife, Elaine (Scott)
  Steinbeck and one son, Thomas.

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Other Works by John Steinbeck

• The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
• Cannery Row (1945)
• The Pearl (1947)
• East of Eden (1952)

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Setting of OMM

• Salinas, California in 1937

• Salinas, California today

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Modernism

• Write a ¾ page description of the historical
  background to Of Mice and Men.
• Make sure to mention the time period, author,
  setting, literary movement.
• You are required to use 7-8 of the vocabulary
  words (underline the words).
• This is not an essayit is a summary.
• 30 points