Freedom

Question 1

Their dream

Answer 1

• ‘they got a future’
• ‘An’ live of the fatta the lan’
• their dream for the future is what gives them freedom. They could view life as being trapped in the monotony of an itinerant worker.
• But they use their dream to remind them of hope and opportunity. They won’t let the prejudice society destroy their freedom

Question 2

Curley’s wife has no freedom

Answer 2

‘ he says he was gonna put me in the movies, he says I was a natural’

• The establishment of dramatic irony emphasises the tragedy of Curley’s wife’s life.
• Her dream was never materialised. ‘He says I was a natural’ -noun.
• He was only complimenting her to get her to do what he wanted.
• In reality it was never going to happen, reflecting the inevitable tragedy of a working class woman trying to make something of herself. Reader feels sympathy for how she was groomed. Golden age of Hollywood when this was a common thing.
• Now she’s left isolated, confined and unhappy on the ranch. With the sickening dramatic irony that her dream was never going to come true. Her happiness and hope for the future, essentially an insidious lie from a perverted movie director

Question 3

Candy has no more freedom to leave the ranch because of his age and disability. Confined to the ranch is the only way to live

Answer 3

• He recognises that he will get fired and stop working, a bit like his dog
• ‘When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me.’
• echos slim
• He’d rather be dead than endure being homeless in his last years of life outside the ranch
• “shoot” suggests he compares himself to his dog. His without his dog makes him want to die
• old people in Great Depression
• scares the contemporary reader: he is a victim of the Great Depression, if things don’t change, this is their future