Memories

Question 1

Curley’s wife’s glorification of the past. Her memories are distorted, she was groomed

Answer 1

‘ 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 2

George and Lennie’s recollections about their past job

Answer 2

-George + Lennie fleeing from mob in Weed: trial by others’ opinions
- example of rough justice, taken into hands of the people, no chance for Lennie’s defence
- ‘they run us outta Weed’ , ‘out to lynch Lennie’
- 1930s – lynchings common during mob attacks due to social + economic instability + anger towards minorities (outlet/scapegoats for problems within society)
- Steinbeck shows immediacy with which things can escalate and how dangerous it was to live in this society

Question 3

The dream being the only thing Lennie remembers

Answer 3

• ‘they got a future’
• ‘An’ live of the fatta the lan’
• It shows the significance of Hope during The Great Depression
• every character has a dream, even if that dream is unattainable.
• This shows that no matter how terrible a person’s external situation is, their hope will always remain internally. Giving the strength and happiness to keep going
• Therefore, a sense of happiness and hope may be instilled into a reader.
• In fact Lennie’s last words are ‘Le’s get that place now’, creating a powerful juxtaposition when he’s then shot.
  -The fond Memories of their dream are what kept him and George alive and going, irony as it is the last thing he hears