...Explore the Significance of Curley's Wife in 'Of Mice and Men' How is Curley's Wife presented in 'Of Mice and Men'? The novel is a microcosm, a cross section of society reflecting the prejudice. Blacks had no rights in America; they were seen as ‘nobody’s. Women too had very few rights. The itinerant workers ended to be loners. All these people were forced into loneliness and isolation; they each had a dream in hope of a better life often referred to at the time as ‘The American Dream’. Central to Steinbeck’s novel is Curley’s Wife and her importance in the novel is of how she revolves around the novels main themes and events. Curley’s Wife is excluded for being female, she is often found in search for companionship on the ranch as her newly found marriage does not give her the affection she desires, as she states to Lennie “I don’t like Curley he aint a nice fella.” Because of this she often tries to interact with the other men although she is never allowed as they think a “ranch aint no place for a girl.” Carlson also states of how a “women should be at home where she belongs.” The fact that she is excluded from a place of physical work is indicative of how women were portrayed during the 1930’s. They were not expected to do work, but instead stay at home and raise a family. Curley’ wife feels insecure because of the loneliness she feels and it is made clear she is frustrated with this situation, “none of them care how I gotta live.” Throughout the novel as similar...
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...‘Of Mice and Men’ serves as a reminder that dreaming is futile. How far do you agree with this representation of the text and its key themes? To first answer the question we need to define a key element, what are dreams? When we dream we contemplate the possibility of doing something or indulging in fantasies about something greatly desired. Yet they are necessary to keep the levels of hope high in people to stand for what they believe in whether it be the inadequacies of society or something else. Furthermore without incorporating dreams and having something to achieve in our life will result in an endless stream of days that have little connection or meaning. The representation of dreams occurs via prejudice and stereotypes- Crooks, because he is black in a racist culture- seems to be no hope for him; Curley’s wife, only woman on the farm and regarded as a tart- will never feel wanted, another hopeless situation; Candy, one-handed- can’t do the same work as the others and is old- can’t socialize with anyone, lonely and isolated. These situations give reason for dreaming as it becomes a paradise for those who wish for something more in their life and acts as a beacon of hope yet over time dreams either materialize or they question reality and in the book no one achieves or has achieved their dream- Lennie and George, Curley’s wife and Curley. Dreams will always be a source of hope but if they are not achieved you begin to realise that they are futile which is why to some extent...
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...Matthew Bullington 8/31/2012 AP English Period 5 Of Mice and Men Thematic Essay Violence in the novel Of Mice and Men is an everyday reality. With all the hard work that comes from working on a ranch, there always seems to be a significant need for masculine boastfulness which allows for fights, threats, and overall meanness. Violence in this novella is physical, mental, and emotional. Characters are so use to suspicion and failure in life that they will treat each other cruelly, willing to abuse the dreams and the bodies of others as though it were more normal to destroy than to build. In most ways, violence is a normal way for others to relieve the feeling of despair and limited possibilities that all go along with working on the ranch. For example, Lennie tends to be very violent when it comes to people making him angry. This tendency; however is watched over by George, who is supposed to make sure that he is safe and doesn’t get himself into trouble, but at the same time George is physically violent towards lennie because of his mental handicap. Curley, who is the husband of the only woman that lives on the ranch, tends to be very violent toward anyone that he sees as a threat to himself or his power, most of his rage however, is directed to Lennie because of his size. Curley's Wife is also the target of violence because she is seen as the tramp of the ranch for her flirtatious acts with the majority of the ranch men. With all these events in mind, we can paint a pretty...
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...Difficult Choices Have Beneficial Outcomes “Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person’s life to relieve suffering.” There is a debate to whether or not the killing of Lennie in the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is considered an act of euthanasia or murder. Clearly, the killing of Lennie is considered an example of euthanasia and George putting him out of his past miseries and what is yet to come in the future. Of greatest significance is the state that Lennie is previously in before his death. Lennie was considered a danger to those around him. There is quite a list of great length of animals that he has previously killed, although he didn’t necessarily mean to do it. Just one example that showcases this is, “Lennie sat in the hay and looked at the little dead puppy that lay in front of him”...
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...How does Steinbeck use the opening setting to engage the reader? ‘Of Mice and Men’ was published in 1937 and was written by John Steinbeck. He drew some of his ideas from his work experiences (manual and unskilled) whilst supporting himself through college. His circular novella follows the lives of George Milton and Lennie Small who were two itinerant workers searching for jobs during the ‘Great American Depression’ of the 1930’s. Life was very hard during this time so people had to find work where they could, however low paid. It considers their relationship with both each other and the people they meet at the ranch. It is set over a time period of 4 days and has several different themes running through it. As the novella progresses the reader learns the significance of earlier events and gradually the novella moves towards the tragic ending. The first two pages that Steinbeck has written, transports you to the place where you are first introduced to George and Lennie. It creates a clear image in your mind of the surrounding countryside and its beauty. The opening pages of all books and plays need to engage the reader almost immediately if the reader is to continue. So does this vivid description and the emergence of two unidentified men ensure your want to read further and understand why they are there? By looking more in depth at this opening to the novella we should see how Steinbeck succeeds in engaging the reader. In the first line of the novella, the author writes...
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...SYMBOLS, ARCHETYPES & MOTIFS Symbols Three categories: Archetypal – The first symbols of humankind that have replicated themselves in stories throughout the ages across all cultures. They appear in the stories of groups from cavemen to 21st century authors. The term “archetype” was coined by Karl Jung who used them as the basis of “collective unconscious” theory. Cultural – As cultural groups use archetypal symbols to represent their values, fears, beliefs, and expectations, these objects take on meaning specific to that group. For example, the cross is an ancient archetypal symbol. When cultural groups adopt it, the meanings become both universal and specific. For most cultures the cross holds spiritual significance; hence its archetypal meaning. For Christians the cross takes on specific representation of Christ’s crucifixion. Nuance – These objects take on symbolic meaning in the work in which they appear. Modern writers often create their own symbols by repeatedly using the object in meaningful ways. For example, Golding used the conch shell to represent order and governmental control. NOTABLE ARCHETYPAL SYMBOLS, CHARACTERS, AND STORY PATERNS Characters: Hero (Epic, Classical, Romantic, Realistic, Anti-Hero) Outcast, Scapegoat, Trickster, Platonic Ideal, Monster, Temptress, Star-crossed lovers, Clown/jester, Prophet Story Patterns: Rite of Passage/Initiation, Creation, Fall, Expulsion, Death & Rebirth, Journey, Quest Symbols: (Archetypal symbols have...
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...1 Copyright Copyright 2009 - Daily Writing Tips http://www.dailywritingtips.com/ All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, posted or shared in any form, by any means. The content of this ebook was written by Maeve Maddox and Daniel Scocco. 2 Introduction This ebook does not attempt to include every aspect of English grammar found in a traditional school textbook. Its purpose is to present a brief review of grammar terms necessary to an understanding of the most common errors that occur in ordinary, nonacademic writing. Because written language is an arrangement of words, understanding how words work individually and in groups is essential to correct written expression. The sports fan must understand terms like shortstop, quarterback and center in order to follow the description of a game. Similarly, those who wish to speak and write standard English must master the concepts that we will cover ahead. 3 Section 1: The Sentence The basic unit of speech and writing is the sentence. A sentence is a series of words that form a complete thought, for example: Birds fly. Samuel Johnson's father ran a bookstore. My two black cats enjoy lazing in the sun. A complete sentence has two main parts: subject and predicate. 1.1 The Subject When we speak or write, we speak or write about something. The subject is what is being spoken about. For example: Birds fly. (the subject is "birds") 4 Samuel Johnson's...
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...Unit 1 Title: Flowers for Algernon Suggested Time: 5-7 days (45 minutes per day) Common Core ELA Standards: RL.8.1, RL.8.2, RL.8.3; W8.1, W8.4, W8.9; SL8.1; L.8.1, L.8.2 [Additional Tasks: RI8.8, RI8.9] Teacher Instructions Preparing for Teaching 1. Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and the Synopsis. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description for teachers about the big ideas and key understanding that students should take away after completing this task. Big Ideas and Key Understandings: * Students should work through the idea that different levels of intelligence, emotional and intellectual, lead to different types of interactions with people and society. * Students should evaluate moral/ethical decisions of characters. Synopsis A mentally challenged man is presented with an opportunity to have an operation that will triple his intelligence. The story chronicles the journey that he takes as his intelligence progresses and regresses. 2. Read the entire selection, keeping in mind the Big Ideas and Key Understandings. 3. Re-read the text while noting the stopping points for the Text Dependent Questions and teaching Tier II/academic vocabulary. During Teaching 1. Anticipatory Set: Discuss the following questions with students to guide deeper understanding of the main themes of the story: What is intelligence? Can a person ever be too smart? What is meant by the saying “ignorance is bliss”? 2. Students read the...
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...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSICS EDITION OF G EORG E B E R N A R D S HAW ’S PYGMALION By LAURA REIS MAYER BUNCOMBE COUNTY SCHOOLS, ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA S E R I E S E D I T O R S JEANNE M. MCGLINN, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Asheville and W. GEIGER ELLIS, Ed.D., University of Georgia, Professor Emeritus 2 A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion TABLE OF CONTENTS An Introduction .......................................................................................3 Synopsis of the Play .................................................................................3 Prereading Activities .................................................................................6 During Reading Activities ......................................................................13 After Reading Activities .........................................................................21 About the Author of this Guide .............................................................29 About the Editors of this Guide .............................................................29 Full List of Free Teacher's Guides...........................................................30 Click on a Classic ..................................................................................31 Copyright © 2007 by Penguin Group (USA) For additional teacher’s manuals, catalogs, or descriptive brochures, please email academic@penguin.com or write...
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..."Why is Sex Fun? is the best book on the subject I've read. This lively exploration of our sexual heritage offers fascinating reading for anyone curious about why lovers do what they do." -Diane Ackerman, author of A Natural History of the Senses "I am so jealous of Jared Diamond, for he writes with such an elegant simplicity! Here, he takes a loot at the endlessly fascinating topic of human sexuality His convincing arguments should persuade xm that there are very special reasons why we evolved to use sex for recreation as well as for procreatim whereas most other mammals are denied that pleasure.... It is a great little book, by one of the worlds foremost biological philosophers." -ROGER Shohl Professor of Physiology Monash University Australia "Once again Jared Diamond provides us with answers to questions we may never have stopped to ask, but wish we had. In this long essay Diamond explains that recreational sex, while not unique to humans, is a rare behavior in the animal world. Above all, we learn, sexual activity divorced fron procreation is not only part of what it is to be human, but the very crux of our evolutionary success." -Bettyaxn Kevles. author of Naked to the Bonn Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Centnty The Science Masters Series is a global publishing vonture consisting of original science books written by leading scientists and published by a worldwide team of twenty-six publishers assembled by John Brockman. The series was conceived by Anthony Cheetham of Orion...
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...All Animals Are Equal PETER SINGER In TOM REGAN & PETER SINGER (eds.), Animal Rights and Human Obligations. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1989, pp. 148-162 Available freely online at: http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/singer02.htm. In recent years a number of oppressed groups have campaigned vigorously for equality. The classic instance is the Black Liberation movement, which demands an end to the prejudice and discrimination that has made blacks second-class citizens. The immediate appeal of the black liberation movement and its initial, if limited, success made it a model for other oppressed groups to follow. We became familiar with liberation movements for Spanish-Americans, gay people, and a variety of other minorities. When a majority group— women—began their campaign, some thought we had come to the end of the road. Discrimination on the basis of sex, it has been said, is the last universally accepted form of discrimination, practiced without secrecy or pretense even in those liberal circles that have long prided themselves on their freedom from prejudice against racial minorities. One should always be wary of talking of "the last remaining form of discrimination." If we have learnt anything from the liberation movements, we should have learnt how difficult it is to be aware of latent prejudice in our attitudes to particular groups until this prejudice is forcefully pointed out. A liberation movement demands an expansion of our moral horizons and...
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...NORTH AMERICAN FICTION BRIEF INTRODUCTION: Before starting our study of American Fiction we must understand what American Literature is in itself and which pieces of writing we can include within this label. It is believed that when a piece is written in North America, more precisely in the USA, it would automatically be given this epithet. But it should be taken into account that this idea is quite broad and doesn’t reflect the real essence of the term. However, there is also another definition that gathers this essence: American Literature is the one that represents the Americanism, the singularity of the USA philosophy and culture. This way, instead of focusing on who the author is, it is focused on the content of the writing. In that which concerns Fiction, the following documents are the ones considered as narrative: Speeches Letters Short Stories Essays Political Documents Sermons Novels Diaries 1 FIRST LITERARY EXPRESSIONS The first documents in which the idea of Americanism is very present are the Sermons. They respond to the strict Protestantism settled in the New Continent after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritans in the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630). They established a theocratic community whose main and only point of reference was the Bible. That is why the idea of the ‘city upon a hill’ is still very present in American mentality. As we all know...
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...is just as applicable to the latest rebellion against dictators around the world. Young people should be able to recognize similarities between the animal leaders and politicians today. The novel also demonstrates how language can be used to control minds. Since teenagers are the target not only of the educational system itself but also of advertising, the music industry, etc., they should be interested in exploring how language can control thought and behavior. Animal Farm is short and contains few words that will hamper the reader’s understanding. The incidents in the novel allow for much interactive learning, providing opportunities for students to dramatize certain portions, to expand on speeches, and to work out alternative endings. The novel can be taught collaboratively with the history department as an allegory of the Russian Revolution, allowing students to draw parallels between actual events and people and the imaginary ones created by Orwell. The novel can also be taught as a beast fable following the study of shorter fables by Aesop and James Thurber. Examining the work as a satirical comment on the corrupting influence of power, students should be able to trace the corruption of the pigs and perhaps relate their findings to individuals in our own...
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...A Confession 1 A Confession by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy I I was baptized and brought up in the Orthodox Christian faith. I was taught it in childhood and throughout my boyhood and youth. But when I abandoned the second course of the university at the age of eighteen I no longer believed any of the things I had been taught. Judging by certain memories, I never seriously believed them, but had merely relied on what I was taught and on what was professed by the grown-up people around me, and that reliance was very unstable. I remember that before I was eleven a grammar school pupil, Vladimir Milyutin (long since dead), visited us one Sunday and announced as the latest novelty a discovery made at his school. This discovery was that there is no God and that all we are taught about Him is a mere invention (this was in 1838). I remember how interested my elder brothers were in this information. They called me to their council and we all, I remember, became very animated, and accepted it as something very interesting and quite possible. I remember also that when my elder brother, Dmitriy, who was then at the university, suddenly, in the passionate way natural to him, devoted himself to religion and began to attend all the Church services, to fast and to lead a pure and moral life, we all -- even our elders -- unceasingly held him up to ridicule and for some unknown reason called him "Noah". I remember that Musin-Pushkin, the then Curator of Kazan University, when inviting us to...
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...Holiday Celebrations Around the World/Family Traditions By Cathy Abraham/2003 HOLIDAYS CELEBRATIONS AROUND THE WORLD Curriculum Goal – Children will explore different ways in which people celebrate holidays, and foster respect for other cultures and traditions. Vocabulary: - Chanukah - Kwanzaa - Dreidel - Christmas - Ramadan Letter of the Week: C Colors of the Week: Red and Green Concepts: - Families celebrate holidays in different ways – and that’s okay - People celebrate holidays based on what they believe and where they are from - Customs and traditions are things that families do every year - People eat different kinds of food when they celebrate - A family tradition is a way of celebrating Sensory Table Ideas: Curling ribbon and blunt, round-end scissors. Teach children how to curl ribbon. Art Activities: - Children cut out a pine tree (Christmas Tree) pattern. Decorate. - Make a collage from old Christmas cards, wrapping paper scraps, etc - Christmas/holiday cookie cutter prints - Make Holiday gift wrapping paper (sponge painting, etc.) - Passover candle menorah (made out of handprint) - Kwanzaa placemat (weave even-sized red and green strips of paper) - Snoglobe (babyfood jar, silver glitter, small winter or holiday theme décor minature figure glued to the bottom. Add water. Glue babyfood jar shut) - Star of David Ornament (Children make 2 triangles out of 6 craft sticks. Glue. Place one triangle over the other at an angle, going the other way) - Pipecleaner candycanes...
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