Sample essay plans – Of Mice and Men
Any of these MUST be written in PEE, and every paragraph MUST include evidence from the text to support your ideas. If you don’t do this, you’re doing it wrong! Good luck!
Relationship between George and Lennie:
Intro – Talk about why the relationship with George and Lennie is so important. How was it an unusual relationship considering the setting of the novel? What are the main issues facing their relationship?
P1 – Talk about when they are first introduced to us. Lennie is like a child whereas George is like a carer. This is important as it relates to how the plot progresses in the novel. Lennie is described as like a ‘terrier’ etc.
P2 – Talk about how the relationship is not so simple. George talks about how he could ‘get along so easy’. This ends up being very significant when Lennie kills Curley’s Wife.
P3 – Talk about how them travelling round together is unusual. Talk about why people wouldn’t normally do that at the time? Explain why you think George travels with Lennie. Include quotes from where the boss questions George’s motives etc.
P4 – Talk about how George has control over Lennie. Include quotes from the ‘fight’ scene and also George’s insistence that he ‘won’t let Lennie tend the rabbits’. Talk about why it is important, yet dangerous, that George has such control over a force such as Lennie.
P5 – Talk about how George does not really do his bit for Lennie. He goes along with the dream etc., but then spends all his money (and possibly Lennie’s) visiting the brothel.
P6 – Talk about how ultimately George lets Lennie down. Doesn’t give him a chance to explain after he has killed Curley’s Wife. Easy option?
P7 – Talk about the death. Why did George do it? Should he have done it? What were the alternatives at the time?
Conclusion – Sum up their relationship giving your opinion on both characters
Money –
Intro – Talk about the financial situation of USA at the time. Why was money in such short supply? How did that affect the country? Talk about the American dream.
P1 – George and Lennie. Why are they travelling in the first place? How has money played its part?
P2 – The dream. Why do George and Lennie have their dream? Why is it only a dream? Why can’t they just go to a bank like today and get a mortgage? Why are the workers so desperate to get out of their lives the way they are.
P3 – Curley. Talk about Curley. Introduce the sort of character that he is. Why do people ‘put up with’ him the way he is? Talk about the fact that Curley’s Wife, George and Lennie etc. put up with his bullying ways because they need any work they can get due to the financial situation.
P4 – Talk about Curley’s wife. She had dreams and aspirations once. Always include quotes. Now she settles for living with Curley who she ‘doesn’t like’ because he ‘ain’t a nice fella.’ Why does she do this? How has money played its part?
P5 – Talk about Crooks. What is his situation? Is he well off where he is? Talk about how the boss ‘gives him hell’, but he still chooses to stay. Why?
P6 - Talk about Candy. Candy let’s the workers on the farm shoot his dog. Why? Because if he falls out of favour, he will end up ‘on the county’, living a life of squalor. He needs the job.
P7 – Talk about the way the do not look after their money. Only $600 to buy their dream farm, yet they can’t save it up. Why? George’s habits? Lennie keeps getting them fired?
Conclusion – Finish off talking about why life was so difficult for people back then during the great depression. It caused lots of problems, lots of people had to put up with bad lives etc.
Animals –
Introduction – Explain there are lots of animals in this novel. Even the title includes Mice and Men. Explain where this title comes from.
P1- The dead mouse. Include a quote. This shows Lennie’s strength which will be a problem in the novel.
P2 – Candy’s dog. Important because it shows how if you serve no purpose you will be disposed of. Metaphor for Candy himself. Also shows how people have no say unless they are popular etc.
P3 – The pup. Lennie has an ambition of owning a new pup. The puppy end up being accidentally killed but Curley’s wife calls it ‘a mutt’ saying, ‘the whole world is fulla mutts’. Shows how people are often considered equal to animals.
P4 – Names. Candy’s Dog/Curley’s Wife. They are similar in the way they are referred to, as if they belong to somebody else.
P5 – Water snakes and Heron, at the end of the novel. Talk about how this is a metaphor for the way workers are used and gobbled up by the society of the time.
P6 – Rabbits – Lennie’s whole ambition is to ‘tend the rabbits’. Shows how dreams never come, Lennie can not be controlled etc.
Conclusion - Explain that the author uses animals as metaphors for many human situations in order to show how worthless the existences of people can be if the circumstances are wrong.
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