context Flashcards
Q: What is the historical context of Of Mice and Men?
A: The novella is set during the Great Depression (1930s) in America, a period of economic collapse that led to mass unemployment and hardship, especially for itinerant workers like George and Lennie.
Q: How does the Great Depression affect the characters in the novel?
A: Most characters are struggling to survive, working in unstable, low-paying jobs with little hope for the future. The novel highlights the American Dream’s fragility.
Q: What is the significance of the setting in California?
A: California was seen as a land of opportunity, attracting migrant workers seeking employment in agriculture. However, the reality was harsh, with low wages, poor working conditions, and exploitation.
Q: How does the novel reflect the struggles of itinerant workers?
A: George and Lennie travel from ranch to ranch, symbolizing the instability of migrant laborers, who had no job security, home, or family stability.
Q: How does Of Mice and Men connect to the American Dream?
A: The novel critiques the American Dream, showing how economic and social barriers make it unattainable for most people, especially those who are poor, disabled, or marginalized.
Q: What was John Steinbeck’s inspiration for Of Mice and Men?
A: Steinbeck was inspired by his own experiences working alongside migrant laborers in California. He observed their struggles, hopes, and harsh realities, which influenced the novel.
Q: How does the novel address racism in 1930s America?
A: Through Crooks, Steinbeck portrays the severe racial segregation and discrimination black people faced. Crooks is isolated and powerless, highlighting the social injustices of the time.
Q: How does Of Mice and Men reflect gender roles of the 1930s?
A: Women were expected to be housewives and had few rights. Curley’s wife is not given a name, symbolizing how women were objectified and lacked identity beyond their relationships with men.
Q: How does the novel explore disability and mental health in 1930s America?
A: Lennie’s mental disability is misunderstood, and he is seen as a burden rather than a person in need of care, reflecting society’s lack of support for people with disabilities.
Q: What is the significance of social hierarchy in the novel?
A: The ranch has a clear social hierarchy: the boss and Curley are at the top, skilled workers like Slim are respected, and marginalized characters like Crooks, Candy, and Lennie are at the bottom.
Q: How does the theme of loneliness relate to the historical context?
A: The transient lifestyle of itinerant workers prevented them from forming stable relationships, leading to widespread loneliness, as seen in nearly every character in the novel.
Q: What is the influence of naturalism in Of Mice and Men?
A: The novel follows the naturalist literary movement, which suggests that people’s lives are shaped by forces beyond their control, such as economic hardship, fate, and social injustice.
Q: Why does Steinbeck use a cyclical structure in the novel?
A: The novel begins and ends at the same location, reinforcing the idea that dreams are unattainable and that George and Lennie’s fate was inevitable from the start.
Q: How does Of Mice and Men critique capitalism?
A: The novel shows how capitalism exploits the working class, with laborers like George, Lennie, and Candy having little control over their futures and being discarded when they are no longer useful.
Q: How does Steinbeck use symbolism to reflect historical issues?
A: Candy’s dog represents the elderly and disabled being discarded by society, Lennie’s strength symbolizes the dangers of uncontrolled power, and the dream farm represents the unreachable American Dream.
1️⃣ How did the Great Depression affect dreams?
✔ In 1929, the New York Stock Exchange collapsed, causing the Great Depression.
✔ Unemployment rose, and many people lost their homes & savings.
✔ The American Dream—the idea that hard work leads to success—became unattainable.
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Dreams are futile in an economy where success is impossible for the working class.
2️⃣ How does Steinbeck explore dreams in Of Mice and Men?
✔ The novella is a social protest against the futility of dreaming in harsh conditions.
✔ All major characters have a dream, but none achieve them.
✔ Steinbeck presents dreams as a symbol of hope and freedom.
🔹 Key Theme:
The American Dream is an illusion for most characters in the novel.
3️⃣ What is George and Lennie’s dream?
✔ Own a small farm, with animals, crops, and independence.
✔ Lennie dreams of tending rabbits, symbolizing innocence & security.
✔ Represents:
Freedom from wage labor.
A better future.
A stable home life.
🔹 Key Quotes:
“An’ live off the fatta the lan’.”
“Tell me about the rabbits, George.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Even simple dreams are impossible for itinerant workers
4️⃣ How does Steinbeck highlight worker exploitation?
✔ Steinbeck criticizes landowners who benefited from the economic crisis.
✔ Workers like George & Lennie have no stability, forced to travel constantly.
✔ Living conditions are poor:
The bunkhouse is infested with bugs.
No privacy or comfort for workers.
Dangerous working conditions with no job security.
🔹 Key Quote:
“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Dreams cannot thrive in an exploitative system.
5️⃣ How do other characters’ dreams compare?
✔ Candy:
Dreams of joining George & Lennie’s farm.
Offers his life savings, showing his desperation.
His dream dies when Lennie is killed.
✔ Curley’s Wife:
Dreams of becoming a Hollywood actress.
Trapped in a loveless marriage, she resents her lost opportunities.
✔ Crooks:
Dreams of equality & companionship.
Understands his dream is unrealistic due to racism.
🔹 Key Quotes:
Candy: “Maybe if I give you guys my money, you’ll let me hoe in the garden.”
Crooks: “Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Every character’s dream is shattered, proving that success is unattainable.
6️⃣ Why do George & Lennie travel for work?
✔ Workers traveled long distances for temporary jobs.
✔ California was seen as a land of opportunity, but most workers remained poor.
✔ George’s desperation for work highlights the lack of choice for itinerant workers.
🔹 Key Quote:
“We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
The American Dream is a false promise—migrants face hard labor with no reward.
7️⃣ How does Steinbeck link Of Mice and Men to real-life events?
✔ Steinbeck was a political activist & former journalist.
✔ Wrote many novels about the Great Depression, including The Grapes of Wrath.
✔ Of Mice and Men focuses on individual workers, making the tragedy personal.
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Capitalism creates an unfair system where the poor cannot escape poverty.
1️⃣ How did the Great Depression create loneliness?
✔ The Great Depression forced men to leave their families to find work.
✔ Unemployment rose drastically, leading to mass migration.
✔ Workers became isolated, constantly moving from job to job.
🔹 Key Historical Event:
The Dust Bowl Migration (1930s)
Droughts & dust storms destroyed farms.
Thousands of families traveled to California searching for work.
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Economic hardship forced people into loneliness and destroyed communities.
2️⃣ Why is the setting important?
✔ The novella is set on a ranch in Soledad, California.
✔ “Soledad” translates to “solitude” (loneliness) in Spanish.
✔ Symbolizes the men’s isolation & distance from their homes.
🔹 Key Theme:
Loneliness is built into the setting itself.
3️⃣ How does Steinbeck highlight loneliness?
✔ Most men travel alone, without family or friendships.
✔ They do not settle down, always moving for work.
✔ They do not trust each other, making companionship rare.
🔹 Key Quote:
“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Loneliness is an unavoidable part of an itinerant worker’s life.
4️⃣ How are George & Lennie different?
✔ They travel together, unlike other workers.
✔ Their friendship gives them hope in a lonely world.
✔ George constantly reminds Lennie that they are different from others.
🔹 Key Quotes:
“With us it ain’t like that. We got a future.”
“We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Companionship is rare and precious.
5️⃣ How do other characters experience loneliness?
✔ Candy:
Lost his hand → Isolated & fears being useless.
His only companion (his dog) is killed, leaving him alone.
✔ Crooks:
Isolated because of racism → Lives separately from the men.
Desperately craves company but pretends he doesn’t.
✔ Curley’s Wife:
Ignored by her husband → Tries to talk to the men.
Viewed as a threat instead of a lonely individual.
🔹 Key Quote (Crooks):
“A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Loneliness affects everyone, regardless of race, gender, or age.
6️⃣ Why can’t the characters escape loneliness?
✔ The men are forced to travel for work, preventing stable relationships.
✔ No trust exists between them—each man must survive alone.
✔ Even dreams of companionship (Candy joining George & Lennie) are destroyed.
🔹 Key Quote (Candy, after Lennie dies):
“Now what the hell do ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
The American Dream offers no escape from loneliness.
1️⃣ How does Of Mice and Men explore discrimination?
✔ Of Mice and Men is didactic (teaches a lesson) about prejudice and social injustice.
✔ The ranch serves as a microcosm of society, showing how minority groups were marginalized.
✔ Steinbeck’s Message:
Society exploits the weak and isolates the powerless.
Marginalized individuals suffer discrimination and cannot escape their circumstances.
🔹 Key Theme:
The novella presents discrimination as an unavoidable part of life in 1930s America.
2️⃣ How does Steinbeck represent discrimination?
✔ Discrimination is shown through different characters who represent minority groups:
Candy → Ageism & disability.
Crooks → Racism & disability.
Curley’s Wife → Sexism.
Lennie → Ableism (discrimination based on disabilities).
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Discrimination is widespread and normalized in society.
Even minorities discriminate against each other to gain status.
3️⃣ How is Candy discriminated against?
✔ Elderly & physically disabled—lost his hand in a work accident.
✔ Feels useless and fears being discarded like his dog.
✔ Wants to join George & Lennie’s dream because he knows he will soon be fired.
🔹 Key Quote:
“They’ll can me purty soon. Jus’ as soon as I can’t swamp out no bunk-houses.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Workers were discarded when they became weak or unproductive.
4️⃣ How is Crooks discriminated against?
✔ Segregated from the other workers, forced to live in the stable with the animals.
✔ Physically disabled due to a crooked back from a horse kick.
✔ Treated as inferior by the boss and the other men.
🔹 Key Quotes:
“S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy.”
“They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Racism isolates individuals, forcing them into loneliness and suffering.
5️⃣ How is Curley’s wife discriminated against?
✔ No name, symbolizing her lack of identity.
✔ Ignored by men, except when she is seen as a sexual object.
✔ Her dream of being an actress is dismissed.
✔ Curley controls her, isolating her from companionship.
🔹 Key Quotes:
“They left all the weak ones here.”
“I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Women were seen as possessions with no real freedom.
6️⃣ How is Lennie treated differently?
✔ Has a mental disability, making him childlike & dependent on George.
✔ The boss suspects George is exploiting him, showing a lack of understanding of disabilities.
✔ Others do not see his innocence, only his dangerous strength.
🔹 Key Quote:
“He’s jes’ like a kid, ain’t he?”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
People with disabilities were misunderstood and mistreated.
7️⃣ How does Steinbeck show that discrimination is normalized?
✔ Candy makes racist and sexist slurs casually—reflecting 1930s social attitudes.
✔ The men don’t question discrimination, showing how deeply ingrained it was.
✔ Steinbeck’s realism led to the book being banned in some states.
🔹 Key Quote (Candy about Curley’s Wife & Crooks):
“Tramp” and “nice fella” (contrasts how sexism and racism coexist).
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Discrimination is so normalized that even the victims accept it.
8️⃣ What does Steinbeck use to symbolize discrimination?
✔ Crooks’ living conditions (stable) → Racism (viewed as “less than human”).
✔ Candy’s dog being shot → Ageism (discarding the old).
✔ Curley’s wife’s red clothing → Sexism & danger (perceived as a temptress).
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Society justifies discrimination through social norms.
9️⃣ Who is left behind when the men go to town?
✔ Candy, Crooks, Curley’s Wife, and Lennie—all marginalized characters.
✔ Highlights that those who are different are left out.
✔ When they interact, conflict occurs because they all suffer oppression.
🔹 Key Quote (Curley’s Wife to Crooks, Candy, and Lennie):
“You’re all scared of each other, that’s what. Every one of you’s scared the rest is goin’ to get something on you.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Discrimination isolates individuals, creating hostility and fear.
1️⃣ How does Steinbeck depict power in the novel?
✔ Itinerant workers are powerless in 1930s America.
✔ The American Dream is an illusion for the working class.
✔ Wealth, status, gender, and physical strength determine who has power.
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
External forces (economic, social, and political) prevent people from gaining autonomy.
2️⃣ How does Steinbeck use the dream to show powerlessness?
✔ George and Lennie’s dream represents freedom & self-sufficiency.
✔ George repeats it like a fairy tale, emphasizing how unreachable it is.
✔ The dream is ultimately destroyed, proving that:
Hard work does not guarantee success.
Powerful forces (society, economy, fate) control individual lives.
🔹 Key Quote:
“We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.”
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
The American Dream is inaccessible to the powerless.
3️⃣ What does Robert Burns’ poem symbolize?
✔ The title comes from a poem by Robert Burns, describing a mouse whose home is destroyed by a farmer’s plow.
✔ The mouse had prepared for winter but was powerless against the destruction.
✔ This mirrors the powerlessness of itinerant workers, who:
Work hard but cannot control their fate.
Are at the mercy of landlords, employers, and the economy.
🔹 Key Theme:
Even the best-laid plans are doomed by powerful external forces.
4️⃣ How do different characters experience power?
✔ Curley’s Wife:
Trapped in a loveless marriage with an abusive husband.
Uses her position to threaten Crooks, showing power shifts depending on context.
✔ George & Candy:
Cannot achieve their dream because of Lennie.
✔ Crooks:
Intellectually superior but socially powerless due to racism.
Isolates himself, becoming bitter and cynical.
✔ Lennie:
His strength gives him economic value (he can work).
But his cognitive limitations make him dangerous.
🔹 Steinbeck’s Message:
Power is fragile and dependent on external forces.
5️⃣ How does Steinbeck show that power creates conflict?
✔ Curley’s Wife vs. Crooks
She uses racial threats to assert dominance.
✔ Crooks vs. Lennie
He belittles Lennie despite knowing he is mentally disabled.
✔ Lennie vs. Animals
Kills a mouse, a puppy, and eventually Curley’s wife.
🔹 Key Theme:
Power and weakness exist in a cycle—those who lack power seek control over others.
🔹 Key Quotes:
“I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.” (Curley’s Wife to Crooks)
“A guy needs somebody—to be near him.” (Crooks on loneliness)
