Of Mice and Men (1992)

Of Mice and Men(1992)

Watch the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7pyXEfRArE

Novel to film

Of Mice and Men was written in 1937 by John Steinbeck.

We are going to be watching the 1992 film version of the book.

Gary Sinise helped with production, was the director, as well as plays the character of “George” in the film.

Screenplay by Horton Foote. “Lennie” is played by John Malkovich Running time: 110 minutes

Novels vs. Films

Novel Film

Linguistic = words Visual = images

Relies on the reader’s ability to conceive what is being presented through words that conjure up ideas in the reader’s imagination.

Perceptual medium that relies on the presentation of images to the viewer that are perceived and understood once they are visible on screen.

Raw material: written words Raw material: recorded images and sounds

One author collaborative

AFI – “A Novel Look at Film”

The People behind the production

Producer – the person or group responsible for financing a film and managing the production from start to finish.

Director – the individual primarily responsible for overseeing the shooting and assembly of a film. He or she is most directly responsible for a picture’s final appearance.

Screenwriter – although John Steinbeck created a play based on his own novel, he did not write the screenplay. Screenwriter Horton Foote combined elements from both Steinbeck’s novel and play into a single screenplay or shooting script.

Production designer – the first artist to translate the script into visual form (before the film is shot). He or she creates a series of storyboards.

Art director – responsible for the film’s settings: the buildings, landscapes and interiors that provide the physical context for the characters.


The People behind the production cont.

Costume designer – costumes convey a great deal about the film’s time period and the characters who wear them, their economic status, occupation and attitude towards themselves.

Cinematographer – chooses the lighting, film stock and carefully manipulates the camera. They are an expert in photographic processes, lighting and the camera's technical capabilities.

Editor – organizes the footage and arranges individual shots into one continuous sequence. Even in a single scene, dozens of different shots have to be chosen and assembled from hundreds of feet of film.

Actors – for the audience, actors are the most visible and tangible part of the production.

Music – music and sound effects became essential tools for enhancing a film’s visual qualities.


Anticipation QuestionsRate your answers on a scale of 1 (agree strongly) to 5 (disagree

strongly).

QUESTION YOUR ANSWER ANSWER FROM THE MOVIE

• You don’t need money to be happy

• Everyone needs a piece of land to care for.

• When you have a pet, you have a responsibility to put him out of his misery if he is old and sick.

• It’s important to have someone to talk to – even if he doesn’t really understand.

• “Mercy killings” are never justified.

• Feeling responsible for someone can be a burden.

• Of the many feelings that hurt – grief, anger, resentment, jealousy, loneliness – loneliness hurts the most.

Background to Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902.

His most famous books were written in the 1930s and 1940s, and are set in California. They deal with the lives and problems of working people.

Many of the characters in his books are immigrants from Mexico or from other parts of the United States who went to California looking for work or a better life.

The Setting of Of Mice and Men Of Mice and Men is set in the farmland of the

Salinas valley, where John Steinbeck was born and which he knew all his life.

Steinbeck's father owned land in the area, and as a young man Steinbeck had worked as a farm hand.

The ranch in the story is near Soledad, which is south-east of Salinas on the Salinas river. Weed is nearby.

The countryside described at the beginning of the book, and the ranch itself, would have been very familiar to John Steinbeck.

Map showing California south of San Francisco

John Steinbeck 1902 - 1968

http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/ks4/fiction/ofmicemen/llshort/factsheet.html

Migrant Farm Workers

By the time that Of Mice and Men was published almost half of America's grain was harvested by huge combine harvesters.

Five men could do what would have taken 350 men a few years earlier. George and Lennie are some of the last of the migrant farm workers. Huge numbers of men traveled the countryside between the 1880s and the

early 1930s harvesting wheat. They earned $2.50 or $3.00 a day, plus food and very basic

accommodation. During the 1930s, when there was very bad unemployment in the United

States, agencies were set up under the New Deal to send farm workers to where they were needed.

George and Lennie got their works cards from Murray and Ready's, one of these agencies.

Farm workers getting work cards under a Government Scheme


Migrant farm workers cont.

Added to the man-made financial problems were natural ones. A series of droughts in southern mid-western states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas led to failed harvests and dried-up land.

Farmers were forced to move off their land: they couldn't repay the bank-loans which had helped buy the farms and had to sell what they owned to pay their debts.

Many economic migrants headed west to 'Golden' California, thinking there would be land going spare, but the Californians turned many back, fearing they would be over-run.

The refuges had nowhere to go back to, so they set up home in huge camps in the California valleys - living in shacks of cardboard and old metal - and sought work as casual farmhands.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/prosemicemen/0prose_mice_men_contrev4.shtml

Ranch hands

Against this background, ranch hands like George and Lennie were lucky to have work.

Ranch hands were grateful for at least a bunk-house to live in and to have food provided, even though the pay was low.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/prosemicemen/0prose_mice_men_contrev5.shtml

Mental RetardationThe term "mental retardation" is often misunderstood and seen as

derogatory. Some think that retardation is diagnosed only on the basis of below-normal intelligence (IQ), and that persons with mental retardation are unable to learn or to care for themselves. Actually, in order to be diagnosed as a person with mental retardation, the person has to have both significantly low IQ and considerable problems in everyday functioning. Most children with mental retardation can learn a great deal, and as adults can lead at least partially independent lives. Most individuals with mental retardation have only the mild level of mental retardation. Mental retardation may be complicated by several different physical and emotional problems. The child may also have difficulty with hearing, sight or speech.

In the past, parents were often advised to institutionalize a child with significant mental retardation. Today, the goal is to help the child with mental retardation stay in the family and take part in community life. In most states, the law guarantees them educational and other services at public expense.

http://aacap.org/page.ww?name=Children+Who+Are+Mentally+Retarded&section=Facts+for+Families

Themes

A theme is an idea that runs through a text. A text may have one theme or many. Understanding the themes makes the text more than 'just' a text - it becomes something more significant, because we're encouraged to think more deeply about the text, to work out what lies beneath its surface.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/prosemicemen/3prose_mice_men_themerev3.shtml

The American Dream

From the 17th Century, when the first settlers arrived, immigrants dreamed of a better life in America.

People went there to escape from persecution or poverty, and to make a new life for themselves or their families.

They dreamed of making their fortunes in the goldfields. For many the dream became a nightmare.

The horrors of slavery, of the American Civil War, the growth of towns with slums as bad as those in Europe, and the corruption of the American political system led to many shattered hopes.

For the American society as a whole the dream ended with the Wall Street crash of 1929. This was the start of the Great Depression that would affect the whole world during the 1930s.

However the dream survived for individuals. Thousands made their way west to California to escape from their farmlands in the mid-West.

George and Lennie dreamt of their 'little house and a couple of acres'. The growing popularity of cinema was the last American Dream for

many, Curley's wife was one: 'Coulda been in the movies, an' had nice clothes.'


Loneliness, dreams and inequality

The three main themes in 'Of Mice and Men' - foreshadowed by the reference to Burns' mouse - are loneliness, dreams, and inequality. Loneliness and dreams interlock: people who are lonely have most need of dreams to help them through.

Fill in the table, showing the loneliness, dreams and inequality of each of the main characters.

Loneliness

Dreams (the American dream, broken dreams)

Inequality (racial prejudice, sexual discrimination)

George

Lennie

Curley's wife

Candy

Crooks


Themes chart (fill in your handout)

The titleThe title of the book comes from a poem by the 18th century Scottish poet

Robbie Burns. It is about a mouse which carefully builds a winter nest in a wheat field, only for it to be destroyed by a ploughman. It is written in Scots dialect.

The best laid schemes o' mice an' menGang aft a-gley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promised joy!

(The best laid schemes of mice and menOften go wrong And leave us nothing but grief and pain, Instead of promised joy!)

The mouse had dreamed of a safe, warm winter and is now faced with the harsh reality of cold, loneliness and possible death. There is a parallel here with George and Lennie's joyful fantasy of a farm of their own, and its all-too-predictable destruction at the end of the story. Perhaps the is also meant to suggest to us how unpredictable our lives are, and how vulnerable to tragedy.


The author’s techniques

Structure Called a “Play-novelette” form – Of Mice and Men was an attempt to write a

novel that could be played from the lines, or a play that could be read. 6 scenes The novel begins and ends at the same location, giving it a cyclical form. “Before this time, literature had usually reflected the lives of genteel people.

Now there emerged a new Realism – when an author shows ordinary, everyday details, and makes characters speak and behave as they might in real life.” (Literature Made Easy)

Time and place – 1030’s in California Language

Simple language Lennie speaks in short, simply constructed sentences – childlike. Lennie

uses double negative “I ain’t got no people” (Literature Made Easy) Use slang in their everyday speech.

http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/prose/ofmiceandmen.htm

Steinbeck’s use of light

Light is used to create atmosphere The poor light inside the bunkhouse and Crooks’ room

reflect the miserable, drab lives of ranch hands. On the first appearance of Curley’s wife, both George

and Lennie look up to see that the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off.

Look for light or dark at these scenes: Just before Curley’s wife dies As Curley’s wife dies As Lennie’s captors look for him

Irony

Irony is used as a device in language when the opposite of what is really meant is said, or when something turns out in the opposite way than intended.

An examples of irony is when Curley’s wife says of her husband, “Swell guy, ain’t he?” What she actually means is that he is not a swell guy at all, although she appears to suggest that he is. (Literature Made Easy)

What does Crooks say about his room that is ironic? Think of the time when Curley’s wife and Lennie

discuss their dreams in the barn, shortly before they both die.

Foreshadowing & conflicts

Foreshadowing is a literary device in which an author drops subtle hints about plot developments to come later in the story. An example of foreshadowing might be when a character displays a gun or knife early in the story. Merely the appearance of a deadly weapon, even though it is used for an innocuous purpose — such as being cleaned or whittling wood — suggests terrible consequences later on

List 2 examples of foreshadowing in this movie

Conflict – list the conflicts (characters involved in) that occur in this film Person vs. self Person vs. person Person vs. society Person vs. nature Person vs. supernatural

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreshadowing

Metaphors

A metaphor is a description of a thing as if it were something essentially different but also in some way similar; for example, A silent head and a beak lanced down (the heron’s beak is sharp and fast-moving, like a lance). (Literature Made Easy)

With reference to the film, explain what each of these metaphors mean.

Candy’s dog Crippled characters Solitaire The dead mouse and the dead puppy

Documents

Of Mice and Men (1992)