Of Mice and Men: Assessment Preparation

Your Of Mice and Men assessment will require you to focus on one of the characters. It is crucial that you support all of your ideas with quotations from the novel. You will need to scan the novel for references to each character, looking for quotations that can be inserted into the table below.

Character	Aspect of their personality	Relationship with other characters	How are they used by Steinbeck to express his message/themes/ ideas (e.g. loneliness, dreams, power, social structure, racism, discrimination, economic context of the 1930s)
Lennie
George
Slim
Crooks
Curley
Curley’s wife
Candy

Literature essay writing tips

·         Ensure your focus is always on RESPONDING TO THE QUESTION/STATEMENT.

Introduction

• Have a brief INTRODUCTION that clearly focuses on the question (no more than 3-4 sentences). To ensure that you do this, include key words from the task in your opening sentences.
•   It is not necessary to state what the novel is about – I already know this!

Main body

•  The MAIN BODY of your essay should include about three main points (or, three PEEs).
•  You MUST support all of your points with evidence from the novel.
•  Link your ideas/paragraphs with a variety of connectives.

Conclusion

• Your CONCLUSION, like your introduction, needn’t be any more than 3-4 sentences.
•  Don’t bring in any new ideas here; you are simply summarising what you have already said. Ensure that you give a final, clear response to the essay task.

Literary Essay: Sentence Openers

Modal Verbs

Work through the following links. Your accurate use of modals will form a major part of your Criterion D mark.

Must / Have to

Must / Have to 2

Must, Can’t, Could, May, Might

Can, Could, May and Might

Can / could/ may/ might

Section 5 and the death of Curley's Wife: Who is to blame?

Each of these characters could be to blame for Curley’s Wife's death. Give them a score out of 10 to rate much they contributed to the death of Curley’s wife (1 is very little blame, 10 is completely to blame) and write your reasons why in the box next to it.

Be prepared to put forward a case of blame for one of the characters in group discussion.

Character	Blame rating (/10)	Reasons for blame
Curley’s wife
Curley
George
Lennie

Extension: Can you come up with a list of reasons to describe why American Society might be to blame?

Mixed Conditionals

How conditional sentences are mixed

Unreal conditionals (type II + III) sometimes can be mixed; that is, the time of the if-clause is different from the one of the main clause.

1. Past → Present

• If I had taken an aspirin, I wouldn't have a headache now.

2. Past → Future

• If I had known that you are going to come by tomorrow, I would be in then.

3. Present → Past

• If she had enough money, she could have done this trip to Hawaii.

4. Present → Future

• If I were you, I would be spending my vacation in Seattle.

5. Future → Past

• If I weren't flying to Detroit, I would have planned a trip to Vancouver.

6. Future → Present

• If I were taking this exam next week, I would be high-strung.

Easier exercise:

https://elt.oup.com/student/solutions/upperint/grammar/grammar_09_022e?cc=global&selLanguage=en

Hard exercise:

http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/conditional10.htm

The River God: Poetry Detective

Poetic techniques and devices	Examples	Effect of using the device in this context
assonance
rhyme
mid-line full stops
onomatopoeia
modal verbs
repetition
use of personal pronouns

The River God, by Stevie Smith

I may be smelly and I may be old,

Rough in my pebbles, reedy in my pools,

But where my fish float by I bless their swimming

And I like the people to bathe in me, especially women.

But I can drown the fools

Who bathe too close to the weir, contrary to rules.

And they take a long time drowning

As I throw them up now and then in the spirit of clowning.

Hi yih, yippity-yap, merrily I flow,

O I may be an old foul river but I have plenty of go.

Once there was a lady who was too bold

She bathed in me by the tall black cliff where the water runs cold,

So I brought her down here

To be my beautiful dear.

Oh will she stay with me will she stay

This beautiful lady, or will she go away?

She lies in my beautiful deep river bed with many a weed

To hold her, and many a waving reed.

Oh who would guess what a beautiful white face lies there

Waiting for me to smooth and wash away the fear

She looks at me with. Hi yih, do not let her

Go. There is no one on earth who does not forget her

Now. They say I am a foolish old smelly river

But they do not know of my wide original bed

Where the lady waits, with her golden sleepy head.

If she wishes to go I will not forgive her.

Of Mice and Men: Chapters 4 and 5

Task One:

Class reading page to the end of the chapter (page 94). As we read, underline synonyms for the following words or expressions.
Should page 93
To force someone to leave page 93
To become excited page 93
To figure something out (to understand/ plan) page 93
To be dispirited (lack of enthusiasm) page 93

Task Two:

Class reading of page 95 to 98 `…I get awful lonely’. Find synonyms for the following words and expressions.
1.Page 95 to take small bites of something

2.Page 95 to sing with closed lips

3.Page 95 to mock someone

4.Page 96 to caress/pet

5.Page 96 to put something over another

6.Page 96 sadly

7.Page 96 to start/increase

8.Page 96 to throw

9.Page 97 silently angry

10. Page 97 to look after

Task Three:

‘Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’ (Curley’s wife)

1.Why is this quote grammatically incorrect?

2.What does this quote suggest about Curley’s wife?

3.Do you think she is being sincere?