Sympathy and Curley's Wife

P. We’ve talked a lot about how Steinbeck presents Curley’s Wife in a negative way. Even though we don’t have evidence yet about the good in her, we do, as a reader, feel sympathy towards her. Q. ‘Tell her to stay the hell home where she belongs.’ E. We begin to feel sympathy for her because… In this quote the alliterative ‘hell home’ emphasises where the men believe she belongs. Using the word ‘hell’ suggests… P. Another reason we feel sympathy for her is how women are treated in America at this time. Q. ‘you give me a good whore house every time.’

Jail bait

P – After seeing her for the first time, George says this about Curley’s Wife: Q – ‘I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her.’ E – Jail bait is another example of slang. It means…. George also uses a double negative ‘no’ and ‘never.’ This emphasises how negatively he views Curley’s Wife. He sees her as ‘bait,’ which will lure men to ‘jail,’ both of these adjectives are very negative, giving us more evidence that Curley’s Wife is only shown as a bad person.

Curley's Wife and her phallic hair...!

P – The way Steinbeck describes her suggests the negative, promiscuous nature, of her character. Q – ‘Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages.’ E – The simile is repeated by Steinbeck in the novel. This gives it extra significance. By comparing her hair to the sausages, Steinbeck creates phallic imagery here, the sausage is representative of the penis. This emphasises her sexual nature. The simile could also suggest that her hair is full bodied and ‘meaty’ or that it is greasy. It is ironic that her hair is curly and she is married to Curley, perhaps Steinbeck is creating a pun here.

Of Mice and Men

How do writers present the good and bad in people? Point – Relates to the question Quote – Your evidence taken from the text Explanation – Explain how your quote proves your point. Talk about language features. (That’s the English bit!) P – Before we even meet Curley’s Wife we get a negative impression of her from Candy. Q – ‘Tart’ E – The way that Candy describes her, using slang, gives us the negative impression, because ‘tart’ in this case means someone who is sexually permissive. P – Another negative impression we get of Curley’s Wife is when we first meet her in the book. Q ‘A girl was standing there looking in. she had full rouged lips…heavily made up. Her fingernails were red”. E – Steinbeck repeats the word ‘red’ in his description of Curley’s Wife. Red is usually associated with… (add your own ideas) Our connotations of this mean that we think Curley’s Wife is… (add your own ideas) which is negative.

Compare the ways poets present the idea of power in Hawk Roosting and one other poem.

Power is represented through using different techniques in Hawk Roosting and Flag. Both writers use language techniques to show power. In Hawk Roosting, there are many words connected with altitude such as: ‘top’ ‘buoyancy’ ‘flight’ ‘upward’ ‘high’ ‘fly up.’ We usually connect height with increased status / power. The Hawk acts as an overseer, or dictator, holding power over everything below it. The frequency of these words reminds the reader that the hawk is a symbol of power. The word ‘buoyancy’ is particularly obscure but the hawk talks about how it is of ‘advantage’ which reinforces how height equates to power. Flag, suggests that the actual flag it talks about is a symbol of power which, through patriotism, unites and controls a body of people. Each stanza uses repetition to suggest that the flag is powerless. However, ironically, it then goes on to talk about the effect that it has. ‘It’s just a piece of cloth / that dares the coward to relent,’ here coward and relent are examples of emotive language. The effect of this is to reinforce to the reader the emotional control that the flag and what it symbolises. Hawk Roosting also uses repetition. ‘It took the whole of Creation to produce my foot… Now I hold Creation…’ The poet is reinforcing how Creation has formed the hawk and the tone of this section seems to strengthen this argument as the hawk is full of ego and seems proud that he is ‘God’s gift.’ Now he is in control of ‘Creation’ he is effectively playing God. Often the poet seems to suggest that the Hawk is a symbol for another figure, perhaps a political dictator. Flag’s form, with three regular lines in each stanza, suggests the blocks of colour in many country’s flags. Alternatively it could look as if the stanzas are waving in the wind, with the slightly shorter second line. Every stanza starts with a rhetorical question, which provokes the reader to thinking about the theme. ‘How can I possess such a cloth?’ This suggests that the cloth has an inherent power, and represents a greater power than the narrator. The rhyme scheme of the Flag (ABA) gives a definitive rhythm to the poem, aided by the repetition in line 2. For example, ‘breeze, cloth, knees,’ the rhyme reinforces the end of the third line, which is where Agard gives his message about the power of the flag. Generally the tone of this is mixed, asking the reader to decide whether they believe the flag is of significance or not.

Of Mice and Men - bits and pieces from revision session today

GEORGE "I don't want no fights," said Lennie. He got up from his bunk and sat down at the table, across from George. Almost automatically George shuffled the cards and laid out his solitaire hand. He used a deliberate, thoughtful, slowness." In this quote we see George playing a solitary card game showing, that Lennie cannot join in with any of the activities that George does. Playing a 'solitaire hand' is showing us that Lennie and George don't really have a true connection. The group of three 'deliberate, thoughtful, slowness,' illustrates the isolation and social awkwardness in this situation. The 'almost automatically' could indicate that George doesn't want human interaction and is purely doing this as a time wasting, mechanical action. Slim quotes After meeting Curley's wife for the first time, a new character - Slim - is placed into the story. He uses dialogue like: "Hi, good-looking" & "Well, you ain't tryin' very hard. I seen him goin' in your house" Since Curley isn't around, he uses a chance to potentially flirt with Curley's Wife and get away with it. His disregard for Curley's 'alpha male' personality shows that he likes to put his job in danger to talk to the only woman on the ranch. Also by using 'you ain't trying', it can make it seem like C's Wife is not very bright so she has to try and make herself noticed George "Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world. They ain't got no family and they don't belong no place. They got nothin' to look ahead to". It's hard out there for a ranchhand. Steinbeck seems to be saying that the loneliness is even worse than the poverty: like Lennie and George, you can bear a lot more if you have a friend. The double negatives reinforces the lonely aspects of the speech. "We travel together," said George coldly. "Oh, so it's that way." George was tense and motionless. "Yea, it's that way." (2.80-82) By saying "Oh, so it's that way," Curley is essentially accusing Lennie and George of being gay. But George doesn't take the bait. It just shows how pathetic Curley is that he can't understand the men's friendship. SETTING Quote: 'A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side... the beak swallowed the little snake.' This pathetic fallacy foreshadows the tragedy that is about to befall Lennie. The theme of survival of the fittest is present throughout the book, notably in the symbol of Candy's dog and how it is treated. The simile of the periscope head and the repetition of 'side from side' present us with a cautious animal, which contrasts with the antics of Lennie who 'crashes' through the brush.

Q9 - Drama - Set and Pigeons

Q9. One performance I have seen, Pigeons, which toured our school with the Royal Court in Autumn 2013, used set particularly effectively. [Insert birds eye view sketch of the scene with labels pointing our significant aspects] The visual impact of the set, gave the impression of a house through a few simple, symbolic items: the coffee table, the duvet and the lamp. This was all that was needed to conjure up the domestic setting, and the half size concrete ‘walls’ acted like a cross section allowing the audience to glimpse through the walls. The simplistic setting aided the company because they had to make sure they could set up quickly and efficiently in a range of locations. The way the set was lit, also helped the impact of the set on the audience. The wash was red giving the impression that something terrible was about to happen.