PPT – Mice and Men by John Steinbeck A few miles south of Soledad PowerPoint presentation | free to download - id: 3b22cc-YjJmN Mice and Men by John Steinbeck A few miles south of Soledad - PowerPoint PPT Presentation The presentation will start after a short (15 second) video ad from one of our sponsors. Hot tip: Video ads won’t appear to registered users who are logged in. And it’s free to register and free to log in! Loading... PPT – Mice and Men by John Steinbeck A few miles south of Soledad PowerPoint presentation | free to download - id: 3b22cc-YjJmN The Adobe Flash plugin is needed to view this content Mice and Men by John Steinbeck A few miles south of Soledad Description: Mice and Men by John Steinbeck A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green.

– PowerPoint PPT presentation Number of Views:383 Title: Mice and Men by John Steinbeck A few miles south of Soledad 1 1-8 at KS3 combination of reading, writing and SL student at age 11 will achieve NC Level 4, and at age 14 level 5 4 English GCSE Taken on its own gaining one GCSE Taken together gaining two GCSEs 5 Poetry Clarke and Heaney and Pre 1914 Prose Of Mice and Men or To Kill a Mocking Bird or The Short Stories Paper 1 Media and non-fiction Paper 2 Poetry from Different Cultures (Both contain separate writing questions) 10 What do we read in GCSE English and Literature? 11 Section A Reading Media Non-fiction 1(a) What reasons does Jenny McKay give for the popularity of magazines? (6 marks) 1(b) How does Jenny McKay use facts to support her opinions? (6 marks) 2(a) Compare the front pages of Bella and Trout Fisherman. You should write about Pictures, layout and other design features. 2(b) The magazines Bella and Trout Fisherman are aimed at different audiences.

How does the language used on each front page show this? (7 marks) What activities do we do in English? 17 20 of final English mark 3 final assessments but several throughout the two years To do well in her controlled assessment your daughter will require Turning up to all preparatory lessons Attend the assessment days Stay focused and try her very best 19 Term 1 Spoken Language Study How does interaction work online? What devices do people use to maintain brevity and make writing more like spoken language in the transcript? The word limit is 800-1000 words. Time allowed up to 3 hours. 20 What factors contribute to our idiolect or linguistic fingerprint? Or what factors affect our speech? In Pairs Write down the factors that you think effect your idiolect (Keep these on the desk between you) 21 Are you as smart as a 14 year old? 2moro In analysing the grammar of text messages, you may like to consider the following questions How varied are the clause and sentence structures? How does that variety (or lack of variety) achieve particular effects? How far does the grammar resemble that of speech rather than writing?

wen no one even thinks of me it makes me feel dpressd my mates r probly having fun while im fed up bored waiting 4 an sms th_at_ proves im not ignored shud I charge the battery in case its lost its power?s no one txtd me 4 yonx it must b ½ an hour1! 24 Of Mice and Men has been described as nearly perfect as any book can be. How do you respond to the novel as a whole? Write about how you respond to the novel how Steinbeck makes you respond by the ways he writes. Mice and Men by John Steinbeck A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool.

On one side of the river the golden foothill slops curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees--willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter's flooding and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night track of 'coons, and with the spread pads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark. Mice and Men by John Steinbeck A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool.

On one side of the river the golden foothill slops curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees-willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter's flooding and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night track of 'coons, and with the spread pads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark. Higher tier of entry A-D Foundation tier of entry B-G Assessment Objectives (AOs) which each board will allocate differently. What can I do to support my daughter in Year 11?

completes all set work to the best of her ability Reads the set texts thoroughly Purchase revision guides and uses GCSE bitesize Follow the tasks in the Hayesfield Revision Booklet Attends revision sessions if required Reads widely from non-fiction and media Practises exam questions What can I do to support my daughter in Year 10? completes all set work to the best of her ability Attends every lesson Reads the set texts thoroughly Aims for her targets Prepares fully for the controlled assessments 30 What you put in is what you get out 31 You should...get them talking about and enjoying what they are readingThey should set themselves high standards of achievement 32 Jason folded the piece of paper as small as he could and stuffed it in the secret compartment in the heel of his boot. He glanced down at its previous owner, still and white. Funny how they always look so peaceful afterwards, he thought. Pausing for a moment, he washed his hands, put on some of the mans cologne and quietly closed the door. 1 What has Jason just done? What made you think of this 2 Has he done this before? What made you think of this? 3 Why do you think he did it?

What made you think of this? What might be written on the folded piece of paper? "It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a man who's learning to play the violin." That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver. 1. What has the woman done? 2. What specific words help the reader infer the meaning? What effect does this change have? "It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a woman who's learning to play the violin." That's what he told the police when he handed them the empty revolver. "It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a man who drinks." That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver. About PowerShow.com PowerShow.com is a leading presentation/slideshow sharing website. Whether your application is business, how-to, education, medicine, school, church, sales, marketing, online training or just for fun, PowerShow.com is a great resource. And, best of all, most of its cool features are free and easy to use.

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Most of the presentations and slideshows on PowerShow.com are free to view, many are even free to download. (You can choose whether to allow people to download your original PowerPoint presentations and photo slideshows for a fee or free or not at all.) Check out PowerShow.com today - for FREE. There is truly something for everyone! presentations for free. Or use it to find and download high-quality how-to PowerPoint ppt presentations with illustrated or animated slides that will teach you how to do something new, also for free. Or use it to upload your own PowerPoint slides so you can share them with your teachers, class, students, bosses, employees, customers, potential investors or the world. Or use it to create really cool photo slideshows - with 2D and 3D transitions, animation, and your choice of music - that you can share with your Facebook friends or Google+ circles. That's all free as well! For a small fee you can get the industry's best online privacy or publicly promote your presentations and slide shows with top rankings. But aside from that it's free.

We'll even convert your presentations and slide shows into the universal Flash format with all their original multimedia glory, including animation, 2D and 3D transition effects, embedded music or other audio, or even video embedded in slides. All for free. Most of the presentations and slideshows on PowerShow.com are free to view, many are even free to download. (You can choose whether to allow people to download your original PowerPoint presentations and photo slideshows for a fee or free or not at all.) Check out PowerShow.com today - for FREE. There is truly something for everyone! Quotes From John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' 'Of Mice and Men' Quotes John Steinbeck's Famous & Controversial Novel Of Mice and Men. Penguin Classic Literature Expert By Esther Lombardi Of Mice and Men is a novel by John Steinbeck. This tragedy was first published in 1937. The story is told from the third-person omniscient point-of-view. Of Mice and Men follows the misadventures of Lennie and George, two ranch hands in California. Here are a few quotes from Of Mice and Men.

Quotes "A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool." - John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, Ch. 1 "Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones." - John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, Ch. 1 "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place... With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don't have to sit in no bar room blowin' in our jack jus' because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us." - (George) John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, Ch.

1 continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge "Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want." Of Mice and Men | Book Atlas Of Mice and Men bookatlas John Steinbeck , Novel 1937 , American , Penguin John Steinbeck First Sentence: A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. This is the story of two friends, George and the simple-minded Lenny. George has been looking out for his friend Lenny for many years and they come to be working on a ranch in California’s Salinas Valley. Childlike Lenny is forever getting himself in trouble, unable to control his emotions or desires. George may as well be travelling with a small child.

They both share a dream of one day owning their own place and living off the “fatta the lan'”, and just when this dream is in their grasp, things go horribly wrong. This is an excellent story, one that has endured for many years, and one that will doubtless go on enduring for many years more. Steinbeck’s writing is glorious and he sets a scene like no one else, so if you haven’t read any Steinbeck before, this is as good a place as any to start. * * * * Last Sentence: And Carlson said, “Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?” Last Sentence explained: The boss’ son, Curley is a big problem for George and Lenny in this book. More of a problem is Curley’s wife (the only female character in the book…she remains nameless…). Somewhat inevitably, Lenny kills Curley’s’ wife due to his penchant for stroking soft things. It’s happened with mice, as George says early on in the book: Trouble with mice is you always kill ’em. and later, when Lenny kills a puppy he asks it: Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice.

So when Lenny and Curley’s wife are alone in the barn together we can see the imminent disaster approaching. At the very end, George shoots Lenny and kills him as it is the best possible outcome for all concerned. The final sentence is Carlson (a ranch worker) asking Curley what the problem is with George and Slim (another ranch worker). George has just confessed to Slim that he killed Lenny… Share: Review: Of Mice and Men | Cherwell.org Review: Of Mice and Men Review: Of Mice and Men Ellie Gomes is taken back in time by this nostalgic adaptation of Steinbeck’s classic June 6, 2016 136 “A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green.” Who could possibly claim to have completed GCSE English Literature, if they cannot remember this classic opening line? When I think back to the hours of analysing the imagery, finding quotes to show the theme of loneliness, and researching the Great Depression, it’s clear that John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a novel I know inside out.

Our relationship was always an intense mix of love and hate but over the last five years it has drifted from significance. Last night, however, all of my previous emotions were rekindled and, you’ll be pleased to know, I am still an expert on the extensive use of foreshadowing and the theme of hopeless dreams. What struck me first as I took my seat was the fact the stage curtain was raised already- I wasn’t late –the set was just exposed as people were coming into the theatre. Tumbleweed bushes dominated the space and a crack was present along the ground, through the stage’s centre. As all those who have studied Steinbeck’s novel know, setting description is perhaps his most prominent literary technique. From the outset, I decided I liked the set, and throughout the play I came to like it even more. As George and Lennie emerged from a door in the backdrop (which was projected with the image of a beautiful sky) the relevance of the crack through the stage became clear. At this point, the line became the river which the two men drink out of and set up their camp around- it is the location of the first, hopeful scene and the location of the play’s tragic conclusion.

The programme I was given for the production featured an interview with the designer, Liz Ascroft, who must be highly commended for her ingenious set. According to Liz, the crack in the ground “represents the fault-line in Lennie’s head”. My old English teacher would have loved this, and I loved it too. The design seems to have perfectly captured Steinbeck’s vision of using the natural environment to convey emotions and elements of the plot. The large descriptive paragraphs in the novel were demonstrated by single images of the sky on the backdrop – which changed dramatically in colour between the first scene (hopeful blues and pinks) and the ending (a setting sun – you all remember that metaphor). I left the performance, struck, by the intelligence of the set design which captured my imagined environment perfectly. The relationship between Lennie and George is always critically discussed but was portrayed really interestingly within this production. George (William Rodell) was softer than he seems in the book, which was emphasised through his presence during the scene with Crooks (one of the few differences with the novel). He appeared very affectionate towards Lennie; embracing him when he got upset and kissing his head in excitement over their future plot of land.

The actor playing Lennie, Kristian Phillips, had great energy which is definitely necessary for this role. Often his childlike comments had the audience laughing, which I found quite odd. Perhaps this was because of my intense history of analysing every single character in Of Mice and Men, but the comic effect with which some of the lines were delivered and the sometimes, panto-style movements on the part of a character who clearly has mental health problems, didn’t sit quite right with me. On the other hand, it made Lennie into even more of an endearing character which emphasised the tragic ending. In terms of the acting overall, my biggest concern was the attempted American accents. Most were seriously cringe-worthy and by the end some of the characters gave up and reverted back to English (Curley’s wife sounded Scottish at one point). Whilst it may come across as petty, the failed attempts to adopt an American twang did have an effect on the believability of the performance and it was harder to be convinced by the action taking place when you didn’t quite understand everything that was said.

In fact, after a while I became so fixated on who was and wasn’t speaking with an American accent that I wrote a list down in the theatre; Lennie, George and Carlson (Neil McKinven) were the only ones who stayed American throughout (in case you were wondering). The set made this production; (as well as the inclusion of a live dog, sad as this element of the plot turns out to be) truly capturing the essence of Steinbeck’s book and adding another dimension to the plot which was, at times, poorly acted. However, for most of the play I was too busy reminiscing on my GCSE days to care all that much about this. The overall performance was entertaining and the ending, whilst its build up was not entirely satisfactory, still achieved its shocking purpose. I am glad I experienced this blast to the past, and if you were as emotionally invested in secondary school English as I was, you would have felt similarly blown away.

Kit Whitfield's Blog: First sentences: <i>Of Mice and Men</i> by John Steinbeck First sentences: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The landscape outlasts the characters in this book: we begin with a future death scene. According to his star, John Wayne, the famous Westerns director John Ford used to say (quoted from memory, as I no longer have the video on which he said it), 'Give them the scene then give them the scenery, give them the scenery then give them the scene, but you can't give both at once.' Whether or not this dictum was influenced by the novels of John Steinbeck, that great maker of Americana, it's probably hard to say, but Steinbeck is writing of the people of a place, and even in so short a book as Of Mice and Men, the place must have its moment before its people if we are to feel, as they do, the weight of the landscape. We begin in the big, empty landscape that will loom against the loneliness of every soul in this book.

What we don't know, until we reread the novel, is that we're seeing a place that is, pre-emptively, haunted. The two men who will enter it on the next page will finish the story here too, and one of them will die at the hands of the other. Not a murder, but something sadder: a man whose mental incapacity has finally created a situation that will destroy him, and his best friend offering the only protection left to him - a quick, kind death at his hands rather than a slow, cruel one at the hands of his pursuers. Inevitability is in the wind, and tragedy. This isn't just a setting: it's a warning, a funeral in advance, like a river flowing uphill. Even the name of the landscape is melancholic and forboding: 'Soledad' may be a town in California, but the word itself means 'solitude'. 'Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world,' George tells his simple-minded friend Lennie in a practiced, repeated bedtime story, and the setting does not contradict him.

Etymologically, we're a few miles south of solitude, just about as alone as it gets. We are alone here, without even the characters to keep us company. More than that, we are alone in the same way the characters will be: in the present tense. They will be written in the past tense, but we see things as if we were standing right there, characters in our own right. The Salinas river 'drops in' - not 'dropped in', but 'drops', a river that will outlive the men who pass it: Lennie and George may go in and out of the landscape, but its time will exceed theirs, and probably ours too. What we see is a place that exists outside the human span. Lennie and George will bring with them the conventional narrative past tense - though even then, their past-tense coming will be heralded by the landscape: 'Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves,' the third paragraph begins, and we hear their footsteps and see the birds take flight before they finally enter the book in its last sentence - but what we are seeing is a place that just is. It has melancholic human names, but it doesn't care about people.

We see it first as if we were walking through it, for everyone lives in their own present-tense narrative, and it feels eternal. We come to it, and it is unaffected by our presence. The present tense also gives the feeling that the narrative is informing us - which it is, of course, but informing us about more than just geography. While Steinbeck's language is plain, it is also evocative - and after the bleak name of 'Soledad', we see unions begin to creep in. The river 'drops in close' and 'runs deep', language that, while not quite metaphorical, suggests a river in motion not just in the flow of its water but in the curve of its bed, as if the river itself were walking through the landscape, hugging the hill for company - almost as if its depth were refreshed by the hill's companionable presence.

The rhythm of its movement is balanced, almost musical, the three beats of 'drops in close' balanced by the three beats of 'hillside bank', followed up by the sweet assonance of 'deep and green': while 'Soledad' is lonely and 'Salinas', 'salty', sounds sterile (the river actually isn't, but it's there in the name), there is a sense of revival by the linking of these two geographical features. Likewise, there's a sense of pairing between those two names - both foreign to us, readers of English confronted with a double strike of Spanish, but there's consistency between the two. It makes the landscape sound the more alienating to our Anglo protagonists, hiking as they are through a land named by another culture, but this is a sentence, nonetheless, of pairings. Beginning with solitude, we see a world where even the geography seems to hunger for company - where to be 'close' to something, even something as dissimilar as a hill to a river, makes experience 'deep and green', less parched than before.

Which is, of course, a foreshadowing of the novel's theme: burdensome and maddening though George often experiences Lennie to be, he is a companion in a world of isolation, a bringer of meaning and comfort even with all the discomforts that life as the protector of an overgrown child can involve. As the paragraph continues, the water begins 'twinkling', we see trees, lizards, rabbits, racoons, dogs, deer: in a big landscape, this is a place of relative comfort. The river hugging the hill has created a place that draws people, as the second paragraph shows us with a path 'beaten hard' by workers and tramps coming to rest here. The shadow of solitude falls over us, but this is a place where things come together, and their union - hill and bank, trees and animals - creates a kinder environment that people seek out for comfort. We are without people in this first sentence, entering the landscape slowly - it's a big place, and it takes time to travel. What we see is a place of lushness, despite the harsh human names, a place where things can act together to create a sweeter space.

But the sweetness won't last; in the end, it will be a place of peace, but only the peace of death; a place of comfort, but only the comfort of a few last seconds of company before the horror falls. What we are hearing is not a celebration, but an elegy, and the companionable landscape only makes the coming failure of human relationships, the impending solitude, all the more poignant. John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men (Book Review) – Aidan J. Reid Aidan J. Reid Opening Line: A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. Synopsis: Streetwise George and his big child-like friend Lennie are drifters searching for work in the fields and valleys of California. They have nothing except the clothes on their back and a hope that one day they’ll find a place of their own and live the American dream. But dreams come at a price.

Gentle giant Lennie doesn’t know his own strength, and when they find work at a ranch he gets into trouble with the boss’s daughter in-law. Trouble so bad that even his protector George may not be able to save him… Genre: Classic Sample Passage: I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why. Time to Complete: 2 Days Review GCSE English would have been a little more interesting for me if this book was part of the curriculum. As luck would have it, we were stuck with some stooge called Shakespeare who turned out to be a pretty dab hand himself with the typewriter. I was dimly aware of a film adaptation of this novel but for the life of me couldn’t remember what had happened. I did remember though that Gary Sinise and John Malkovich had played the part of the luckless and perennial drifters George and Lennie in the movie and as Steinbeck described them in the opening chapters, I couldn’t help but see the the hard beady eyes of Sinise and goofy Malkovich helping to bring the story to life. This was a short book.

Shorter than I would have liked because I had really warmed to the characters and setting, but who am I to criticise a Nobel Literature Prize Winner? For it’s size, it packs a hell of a punch inviting the reader to share in a range of emotions from hope and despair, joy and sadness as serious issues like racial prejudice, sexism and mental health are explored. As stories go, it’s a pretty simple one and there are really only a half dozen scenes in the book which make it perfect for the stage. I really loved the snappy dialogue in the book and interaction between the characters not least George and Lennie. There is a great cast of supporting characters like crippled, loving dog owner Candy or the villain Curley, ranch owners son and amateur boxer but suffering terribly from small-dick syndrome compelling him to pick a fight with the biggest man in any room. Without giving too much away, the duo soon find their dreams of a little house and a piece of land where they can raise rabbits,turn into a nightmare with what must be one of the best and emotive endings I’ve read for a long time. A masterful piece of literature that effortlessly transported me to another time and place albeit all too briefly.

Overall: 8 / 10 Of Mice and Men - The Greatest Literature of All Time Of Mice and Men First line [SHOW] [HIDE] A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. Great lines [SHOW] [HIDE] "Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other." "I seen it over an' over—a guy talkin' to another guy and it don't make no difference if he don't hear or understand. The thing is, they're talkin', or they're settin' still not talkin'. It don't make no difference, no difference." "I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Everybody wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here.

Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head." The author [SHOW] [HIDE] John Steinbeck's art and career follow a typically American arc of the mid-twentieth century. The early hard-scrabble years of unadulterated talent giving creative and.... more The movies [SHOW] [HIDE] It's said that mediocre books make great movies and great books make mediocre movies. John Steinbeck's works make mincemeat of this commonplace, as.... more Small but punchy It has always seemed like the perfect little American novella. A poignant and disturbing story told seemingly effortlessly, involving simple folks on the fringe of society who turn out to be quite complex. But read Of Mice and Men a second or third time and its clever structure becomes more apparent. John Steinbeck's greatest work before The Grapes of Wrath is a classically concise piece of theatre. Or cinema. Start with the beginning shot: the clearing by the stream where animals come to rest or drink. Coming in from stage right, are two men, whose names we learn first from their dialogue and whose characteristics and characters are built in short order from their speech and interaction. We quickly learn their recent pasts.

A scene or two later, the large, lumbering Lennie Small and the canny, caring George Milton appear at the ranch to take their place among other itinerant farm workers. In short order, the secondary characters are paraded through, all quickly revealing their strengths and (mainly) weaknesses, their sensitivities and cruelties—their confusions. And when the boss's belligerent young son and the son's provocative wife appear, you can practically hear the Greek chorus prophesying doom at their hands. It all works out as fated, as several characters predict and later remind us they'd predicted. Which is to say, it doesn't work out at all for the main characters. But, even when we are sure how it must end, we are drawn through it, mesmerized by the men's hopes, lulled by the continual repetition of evocative phrases, which make a fable of their dreams and become a near-religious liturgy, an old trick of dramatic recitation going back to ancient times. And then the concluding scene with a typical Steinbeck twist. No, not typical, because Steinbeck is a genius at completing works and never uses the same emotional ruse twice.

Of Mice and Men's final act of killing, accomplished with an understated mixture of practicality and pent-up tenderness, stands with the breastfeeding image of The Grapes of Wrath as one of the great humanistic endings that can stay in your mind forever. It has all taken place within a day a or two. Yet within each of the economically built scenes, the human drama has evolved naturally through dialogue and monologue, and through the apparently casual interplay of personalities. So many of the book's memorable lines are direct quotes from the characters. the story even ends on dialogue. Throughout Of Mice and Men the pace is deceptively relaxed, allowing the ambiguities of several of the secondary, as well as the primary characters, to come out—most notably with Crooks, the derided but surprisingly educated black worker known as the "stable buck"—but the drama is quickly heightened without a misplaced or extra word. It takes a great deal of concentrated effort to get across so much subtlety in ordinary narration without sounding either overly literary or too folksy. Steinbeck's accomplishment here, as elsewhere, is to present high theatre as everyday reportage.

— Eric John Steinbeck ~ Of Mice and Men A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan Mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees- willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter's flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks of 'coons, and with the spread pads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark.

There is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten hard by boys coming down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down from the highway in the evening to jungle-up near water. In front of the low horizontal limb of a giant sycamore there is an ash pile made by many fires; the limb is worn smooth by men who have sat on it. Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray sculptured stones. And then from the direction of the state highway came the sound of footsteps on crisp sycamore leaves. The rabbits hurried noiselessly for cover. A stilted heron labored up into the air and pounded down river. For a moment the place was lifeless, and then two men emerged from the path and came into the opening by the green pool. They had walked in single file down the path, and even in the open one stayed behind the other. Both were dressed in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons.

Both wore black, shapeless hats and both carried tight blanket rolls slung over their shoulders. The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose. Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely. The first man stopped short in the clearing, and the follower nearly ran over him. He took off his hat and wiped the sweat-band with his forefinger and snapped the moisture off. His huge companion dropped his blankets and flung himself down and drank from the surface of the green pool; drank with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse. The small man stepped nervously beside him. "Lennie!" he said sharply. "Lennie, for God' sakes don't drink so much." Lennie continued to snort into the pool. The small man leaned over and shook him by the shoulder. "Lennie.

You gonna be sick like you was last night." Lennie dipped his whole head under, hat and all, and then he sat up on the bank and his hat dripped down on his blue coat and ran down his back. "That's good," he said. "You drink some, George. You take a good big drink." He smiled happily. George unslung his bindle and dropped it gently on the bank. "I ain't sure it's good water," he said. "Looks kinda scummy." Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water and wiggled his fingers so the water arose in little splashes; rings widened across the pool to the other side and came back again. Lennie watched them go. "Look, George. Look what I done." George knelt beside the pool and drank from his hand with quick scoops. "Tastes all right," he admitted. "Don't really seem to be running, though. You never oughta drink water when it ain't running, Lennie," he said hopelessly. "You'd drink out of a gutter if you was thirsty." He threw a scoop of water into his face and rubbed it about with his hand, under his chin and around the back of his neck.

Then he replaced his hat, pushed himself back from the river, drew up his knees and embraced them. Lennie, who had been watching, imitated George exactly. He pushed himself back, drew up his knees, embraced them, looked over to George to see whether he had it just right. He pulled his hat down a little more over his eyes, the way George's hat was. George stared morosely at the water. The rims of his eyes were red with sun glare. He said angrily, "We could just as well of rode clear to the ranch if that bastard bus driver knew what he was talkin' about. 'Jes' a little stretch down the highway,' he says. 'Jes' a little stretch.' God damn near four miles, that's what it was! Didn't wanta stop at the ranch gate, that's what. Too God damn lazy to pull up. Wonder he isn't too damn good to stop in Soledad at all. Kicks us out and says 'Jes' a little stretch down the road.' I bet it was ï¿½moreï¿½ * than four miles. Damn hot day." Lennie looked timidly over to him.

"George?" "Yeah, what ya want?" The little man jerked down the brim of his hat and scowled over at Lennie. "So you forgot that awready, did you? I gotta tell you again, do I? Jesus Christ, you're a crazy bastard!" "I forgot," Lennie said softly. "I tried not to forget. Honest to God I did, George." "O.K.- O.K. I'll tell ya again. I ain't got nothing to do. Might jus' as well spen' all my time tellin' you things and then you forget 'em, and I tell you again." "Tried and tried," said Lennie, "but it didn't do no good. I remember about the rabbits, George." "The hell with the rabbits. That's all you ever can remember is them rabbits. O.K.! Now you listen and this time you got to remember so we don't get in no trouble. You remember settin' in that gutter on Howard Street and watchin' that blackboard?" Lennie's face broke into a delighted smile. "Why sure, George. I remember that... but... what'd we do then?

I remember some girls come by and you says... you says..." "The hell with what I says. You remember about us goin' in to Murray and Ready's, and they give us work cards and bus tickets?" "Oh, sure, George. I remember that now." His hands went quickly into his side coat pockets. He said gently, "George... I ain't got mine. I musta lost it." He looked down at the ground in despair. "You never had none, you crazy bastard. I got both of 'em here. Think I'd let you carry your own work card?" Lennie grinned with relief. "I... I thought I put it in my side pocket." His hand went into the pocket again. George looked sharply at him. "What'd you take outa that pocket?" "Ain't a thing in my pocket," Lennie said cleverly. "I know there ain't. You got it in your hand. What you got in your hand- hidin' it?" "I ain't got nothin', George. Honest." "Come on, give it here." Lennie held his closed hand away from George's direction. "It's on'y a mouse, George." "A mouse?

A live mouse?" "Uh-uh. Jus' a dead mouse, George. I didn't kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it dead." "Give it here!" said George. "Aw, leave me have it, George." ï¿½"Give it here!"ï¿½ Lennie's closed hand slowly obeyed. George took the mouse and threw it across the pool to the other side, among the brush. "What you want of a dead mouse, anyways?" "I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along," said Lennie. "Well, you ain't petting no mice while you walk with me. You remember where we're goin' now?" Lennie looked startled and then in embarrassment hid his face against his knees. "I forgot again." "Jesus Christ," George said resignedly. "Well- look, we're gonna work on a ranch like the one we come from up north." "Up north?" "Oh, sure. I remember. In Weed." "That ranch we're goin' to is right down there about a quarter mile. We're gonna go in an' see the boss.

Now, look- I'll give him the work tickets, but you ain't gonna say a word. You jus' stand there and don't say nothing. If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won't get no job, but if he sees ya work before he hears ya talk, we're set. Ya got that?" "Sure, George. Sure I got it." "O.K. Now when we go in to see the boss, what you gonna do?" "I... I..." Lennie thought. His face grew tight with thought. I... ain't gonna say nothin'. Jus' gonna stan' there. "Good boy. That's swell. You say that over two, three times so you sure won't forget it." Lennie droned to himself softly, "I ain't gonna say nothin'... I ain't gonna say nothin'... I ain't gonna say nothin'." "O.K.," said George. "An' you ain't gonna do no bad things like you done in Weed, neither." Lennie looked puzzled. "Like I done in Weed?" "Oh, so ya forgot that too, did ya?

Well, I ain't gonna remind ya, fear ya do it again." A light of understanding broke on Lennie's face. "They run us outa Weed," he exploded triumphantly. "Run us out, hell," said George disgustedly. "We run. They was lookin' for us, but they didn't catch us." Lennie giggled happily. "I didn't forget that, you bet." George lay back on the sand and crossed his hands under his head, and Lennie imitated him, raising his head to see whether he was doing it right. "God, you're a lot of trouble," said George. "I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn't have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl." For a moment Lennie lay quiet, and then he said hopefully, "We gonna work on a ranch, George." "Awright. You got that. But we're gonna sleep here because I got a reason." The day was going fast now. Only the tops of the Gabilan Mountains flamed with the light of the sun that had gone from the valley. A water snake slipped along on the pool, its head held up like a little periscope.

The reeds jerked slightly in the current. Far off toward the highway a man shouted something, and another man shouted back. The sycamore limbs rustled under a little wind that died immediately. "George- why ain't we goin' on to the ranch and get some supper? They got supper at the ranch." George rolled on his side. "No reason at all for you. I like it here. Tomorra we're gonna go to work. I seen thrashin' machines on the way down. That means we'll be buckin' grain bags, bustin' a gut. Tonight I'm gonna lay right here and look up. I like it." Lennie got up on his knees and looked down at George. "Ain't we gonna have no supper?" "Sure we are, if you gather up some dead willow sticks. I got three cans of beans in my bindle. You get a fire ready. I'll give you a match when you get the sticks together. Then we'll heat the beans and have supper." Lennie said, "I like beans with ketchup." "Well, we ain't got no ketchup. You go get wood. An' don't you fool around.

It'll be dark before long." Lennie lumbered to his feet and disappeared in the brush. George lay where he was and whistled softly to himself. There were sounds of splashings down the river in the direction Lennie had taken. George stopped whistling and listened. "Poor bastard," he said softly, and then went on whistling again. In a moment Lennie came crashing back through the brush. He carried one small willow stick in his hand. George sat up. Awright, he said brusquely. "Gi'me that mouse!" But Lennie made an elaborate pantomime of innocence. "What mouse, George? I ain't got no mouse." George held out his hand. "Come on. Give it to me. You ain't puttin' nothing over." Lennie hesitated, backed away, looked wildly at the brush line as though he contemplated running for his freedom. George said coldly, You gonna give me that mouse or do I have to sock you? "Give you what, George?" "You know God damn well what. I want that mouse." Lennie reluctantly reached into his pocket. His voice broke a little. "I don't know why I can't keep it.

It ain't nobody's mouse. I didn't steal it. I found it lyin' right beside the road." George's hand remained outstretched imperiously. Slowly, like a terrier who doesn't want to bring a ball to its master, Lennie approached, drew back, approached again. George snapped his fingers sharply, and at the sound Lennie laid the mouse in his hand. "I wasn't doin' nothing bad with it, George. Jus' strokin' it." George stood up and threw the mouse as far as he could into the darkening brush, and then he stepped to the pool and washed his hands. "You crazy fool. Don't you think I could see your feet was wet where you went acrost the river to get it? He heard Lennie's whimpering cry " and wheeled about. "Blubberin' like a baby! Jesus Christ! A big guy like you." Lennie's lip quivered and tears started in his eyes. "Aw, Lennie!" George put his hand on Lennie's shoulder. "I ain't takin' it away jus' for meanness. That mouse ain't fresh, Lennie; and besides, you've broke it pettin' it.

You get another mouse that's fresh and I'll let you keep it a little while." Lennie sat down on the ground and hung his head dejectedly. "I don't know where there is no other mouse. I remember a lady used to give 'em to me- ever' one she got. But that lady ain't here." George scoffed. "Lady, huh? Don't even remember who that lady was. That was your own Aunt Clara. An' she stopped givin' 'em to ya. You always killed 'em." Lennie looked sadly up at him. "They was so little," he said, apologetically. "I'd pet 'em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead- because they was so little. "I wisht we'd get the rabbits pretty soon, George. They ain't so little." "The hell with the rabbits. An' you ain't to be trusted with no live mice. Your Aunt Clara give you a rubber mouse and you wouldn't have nothing to do with it." "It wasn't no good to pet," said Lennie.

The flame of the sunset lifted from the mountaintops and dusk came into the valley, and a half darkness came in among the willows and the sycamores. A big carp rose to the surface of the pool, gulped air and then sank mysteriously into the dark water again, leaving widening rings on the water. Overhead the leaves whisked again and little puffs of willow cotton blew down and landed on the pool's surface. "You gonna get that wood?" George demanded. "There's plenty right up against the back of that sycamore. Floodwater wood. Now you get it." Lennie went behind the tree and brought out a litter of dried leaves and twigs. He threw them in a heap on the old ash pile and went back for more and more. It was almost night now. A dove's wings whistled over the water. George walked to the fire pile and lighted the dry leaves. The flame cracked up among the twigs and fell to work. George undid his bindle and brought out three cans of beans. He stood them about the fire, close in against the blaze, but not quite touching the flame. "There's enough beans for four men," George said.

Lennie watched him from over the fire. He said patiently, "I like 'em with ketchup." "Well, we ain't got any," George exploded. "Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want. Why, I could stay in a cat house all night. I could eat any place I want, hotel or any place, and order any damn thing I could think of. An' I could do all that every damn month. Get a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room and play cards or shoot pool." Lennie knelt and looked over the fire at the angry George. And Lennie's face was drawn with terror. "An' whatta I got," George went on furiously. "I got you! You can't keep a job and you lose me ever' job I get. Jus' keep me shovin' all over the country all the time. An' that ain't the worst.

You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out." His voice rose nearly to a shout. You crazy son-of-a-bitch. You keep me in hot water all the time. He took on the elaborate manner of little girls when they are mimicking one another. "Jus' wanted to feel that girl's dress- jus' wanted to pet it like it was a mouse- Well, how the hell did she know you jus' wanted to feel her dress? She jerks back and you hold on like it was a mouse. She yells and we got to hide in a irrigation ditch all day with guys lookin' for us, and we got to sneak out in the dark and get outa the country. All the time somethin' like that- all the time. I wisht I could put you in a cage with about a million mice an' let you have fun." His anger left him suddenly. He looked across the fire at Lennie's anguished face, and then he looked ashamedly at the flames. It was quite dark now, but the fire lighted the trunks of the trees and the curving branches overhead.

Lennie crawled slowly and cautiously around the fire until he was close to George. He sat back on his heels. George turned the bean cans so that another side faced the fire. He pretended to be unaware of Lennie so close beside him. "George," very softly. No answer. "George!" "Whatta you want?" "I was only foolin', George. I don't want no ketchup. I wouldn't eat no ketchup if it was right here beside me." "If it was here, you could have some." "But I wouldn't eat none, George. I'd leave it all for you. You could cover your beans with it and I wouldn't touch none of it." George still stared morosely at the fire. "When I think of the swell time I could have without you, I go nuts. I never get no peace." Lennie still knelt. He looked off into the darkness across the river. "George, you want I should go away and leave you alone?" "Where the hell could you go?" "Well, I could. I could go off in the hills there. Some place I'd find a cave." "Yeah? How'd you eat?

You ain't got sense enough to find nothing to eat." "I'd find things, George. I don't need no nice food with ketchup. I'd lay out in the sun and nobody'd hurt me. An' if I foun' a mouse, I could keep it. Nobody'd take it away from me." George looked quickly and searchingly at him. "I been mean, ain't I?" "If you don' want me I can go off in the hills an' find a cave. I can go away any time." "No- look! I was jus' foolin', Lennie. 'Cause I want you to stay with me. Trouble with mice is you always kill 'em." He paused. "Tell you what I'll do, Lennie. First chance I get I'll give you a pup. Maybe you wouldn't kill ï¿½it.ï¿½ That'd be better than mice. And you could pet it harder." Lennie avoided the bait. He had sensed his advantage. "If you don't want me, you only jus' got to say so, and I'll go off in those hills right there- right up in those hills and live by myself.

An' I won't get no mice stole from me." George said, "I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody'd shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself. No, you stay with me. Your Aunt Clara wouldn't like you running off by yourself, even if she is dead." Lennie spoke craftily, "Tell me- like you done before." "Tell you what?" George snapped, "You ain't gonna put nothing over on me." Lennie pleaded, "Come on, George. Tell me. Please, George. Like you done before." "You get a kick outa that, don't you? Awright, I'll tell you, and then we'll eat our supper...." George's voice became deeper. He repeated his words rhythmically as though he had said them many times before. "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no fambly. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an' work up a stake and then they go into town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they're poundin' their tail on some other ranch.

They ain't got nothing to look ahead to." Lennie was delighted. "That's it- that's it. Now tell how it is with us." George went on. "With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don't have to sit in no bar room blowin' in our jack jus' because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us." Lennie broke in. ï¿½"But not us! An' why? Because... because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why."ï¿½ He laughed delightedly. "Go on now, George!" "You got it by heart. You can do it yourself." "No, you. I forget some a' the things. Tell about how it's gonna be." "O.K.

Someday- we're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an' a cow and some pigs and-" ï¿½"An' live off the fatta the lan',"ï¿½ Lennie shouted. "An' have rabbits.ï¿½ Go on, George! Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that, George." "Why'n't you do it yourself? You know all of it." "No... you tell it. It ain't the same if I tell it. Go on... George. How I get to tend the rabbits." "Well," said George, "we'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we'll just say the hell with goin' to work, and we'll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an' listen to the rain comin' down on the roof- Nuts!" He took out his pocket knife.

"I ain't got time for no more." He drove his knife through the top of one of the bean cans, sawed out the top and passed the can to Lennie. Then he opened a second can. From his side pocket he brought out two spoons and passed one of them to Lennie. They sat by the fire and filled their mouths with beans and chewed mightily. A few beans slipped out of the side of Lennie's mouth. George gestured with his spoon. "What you gonna say tomorrow when the boss asks you questions?" Lennie stopped chewing and swallowed. His face was concentrated. I... I ain't gonna... say a word. "Good boy! That's fine, Lennie! Maybe you're gettin' better. When we get the coupla acres I can let you tend the rabbits all right. 'Specially if you remember as good as that." Lennie choked with pride. "I can remember," he said. George motioned with his spoon again. "Look, Lennie. I want you to look around here. You can remember this place, can't you? The ranch is about a quarter mile up that way. Just follow the river?" "Sure," said Lennie. "I can remember this.

Di'n't I remember about not gonna say a word?" "'Course you did. Well, look. Lennie- if you jus' happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an' hide in the brush." "Hide in the brush," said Lennie slowly. "Hide in the brush till I come for you. Can you remember that?" "Sure I can, George. Hide in the brush till you come." "But you ain't gonna get in no trouble, because if you do, I won't let you tend the rabbits." He threw his empty bean can off into the brush. "I won't get in no trouble, George. I ain't gonna say a word." "O.K. Bring your bindle over here by the fire. It's gonna be nice sleepin' here. Lookin' up, and the leaves. Don't build up no more fire. We'll let her die down." They made their beds on the sand, and as the blaze dropped from the fire the sphere of light grew smaller; the curling branches disappeared and only a faint glimmer showed where the tree trunks were. From the darkness Lennie called, "George- you asleep?" "No.

Whatta you want?" "Let's have different color rabbits, George." "Sure we will," George said sleepily. "Red and blue and green rabbits, Lennie. Millions of 'em." "Furry ones, George, like I seen in the fair in Sacramento." "Sure, furry ones."

Question: """A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas river drops close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green"" is the first line of which American novel?"
Answer: 'OF MICE AND MEN'