Of Mice and Men Cheat Sheet

Of Mice and Men Cheat Sheet (Paper 1, Section A )                 

Getting an A/A*

Commentary Question: (10 Marks – 20 minutes)

Make sure your points are tailored to the question - if it’s about atmosphere/mood - keep using the word ‘atmosphere/mood’
If it’s ‘character’ – then focus on characterisation – remember the character will be nuanced/complex
Focus on language and the writer’s techniques – try and be CONCISE + DETAILED

Be confident - talk about the interesting moments in the extract and suggest perhaps how mood/atmosphere changes over the course of the extract/how the readers’ understanding of character changes over the course of an extract /how different readers may respond in different ways

Try to cover the breadth of the extract – something from beginning/middle/end

‘Steinbeck highlights/emphasises/suggests/creates/implies/hints/…’

Essay question: (20 marks – 40 minutes)

!!!! Do not tell the story - analyse the text as a deliberately constructed work of art!!!

-          One of Steinbeck’s most effective techniques……
-          Steinbeck presents the relationship of George and Lennie in a deliberately nuanced way
-          Steinbeck constructs/ Steinbeck implies/Steinbeck highlights/emphasises…

CONTEXT is v.important for of Mice and Men - show understanding of why Steinbeck was writing….
You must mention context!

Of Mice and Men (1937) was published only 8 years after the Great Wall Street Crash of 1929. Steinbeck is writing about something recent that had a massive impact on his whole country, but particularly on migrant workers such as Lennie and George who have no security but who have been fed the American Dream.

Key techniques/ideas:
  • ·         Steinbeck – chronicler of the Great Depression – he wants to give a voice to the voiceless. He doesn’t want people like Lennie to be discarded by society and forgotten forever.
  • ·         Steinbeck wants to call into question the American Dream and its naïve optimism
  • ·         “Playable novel” – body language, focus on action, sparse description, very tight setting – only a few different places/scenes > oppressiveness/claustrophobia of the society
  • ·         Tragedy – There isn’t any real hope for Lennie (or anyone) in the tight world of the novel.  Pathos is big in the novel and is heighted through the pathetic fallacy of the heat at the beginning of the novel (>>>Heat>>>> violence) and of the sun setting at the end of the novel (Sunset>>>Lennie’s death)
  • ·         Tragedy is also implicit in the title – Robert Burns’ poem is clear that our plans do not work out, and therefore we know from the beginning that the characters’ dreams are going to fail.
  • ·        Foreshadowing
  • ·         Animal imagery  - snakes/mice/dogs – look particularly at the snake at the beginning and end/foreshadowing
  • ·         ‘Non-teleological thinking’ or ‘is thinking’ – The novel celebrates that it’s what we have in the present that matters, because we have it.  The novel celebrates ordinariness, friendship and courage.
  • ·         Race (Crooks) and the role of women in society is explored
  • ·         Contrast/Irony  - there is a strong visual contrast at the beginning Lennie/George ‘Lennie Small’ >>> thought-provoking. Steinbeck wants us to look past the surface. ‘I wonder how many people I’ve looked at all my life and never seen.’
  • ·         Names – seem symbolic/laden with meaning e.g. Curley’s wife
  • ·         Remember Slim could be seen as the idealised human/hope for a different kind of society


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