Creating Quoties

Do make sure to create your quoties packets, if you haven't already, or finish them off if you started them earlier this week. They are incredibly useful for helping you to remember key facts--and can be SO pretty. I'm hoping to get some pictures of the most appealing to put on this site as examples...

The politics of the Playground

Which do you think is most important in Of Mice and Men, loneliness or friendship? The examiners tend to be very excited by loneliness (so to speak) and it regularly comes up as a question in one form or another. But I've been thinking about it, and I'm not so sure--perhaps the focus of the book is realy friendship?

Certainly the friendship of Lennie and George (one so often misinterpreted by others)is of key importance in the novel, but consider others also--how Slim offers friendship to George, almost shyly, how Curley has no friends, how much of the interactions in the bunkhouse are almost like primary school--everyone looks to Slim, because he's the most important, to decide the fate of Candy's dog; Crooks is isolated; the guys get the courage to gang up on Curley (the school bully?) once Slim stands up for himself.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think that the interactions of the men in that novel are like the interactions of children. Perhaps the lack of independence breeds immaturity? Look how Curley is always out for attention, wanting to prove himself sexually, wanting to be the toughest in the playground... but ultimately threatneing people with 'my dad can get you canned'. There's not a lot of maturity there, is there? Candy, unable to make decisions for himself, relying on popular opinion to make an important, life-or-death decision... George and Lennie, wanting to fit in, not get into trouble... and when Curley's wife is killed, like kids they try to sort it out themselves rather than call the law (the teacher)?

What do you think?

Your Wish is My Command

So, a list of useful media terms: Well, you can have my list, but as it's in my school files, you'll have to wait until Monday, when I can easily get into that without the five-hundred-year wait that 'Easylink' involves. If you'd like something faster than that, then I suggets that you look further afield, as there's plenty of good information, appropriately enough, on the web, if you know where to look.

For instance, there's a useful list to be found from the Media Awareness Network and another (which opens as a word document) from Geoff Barton which is well worth a look.

More on dreams...

Well, once you start thinking about the novel in these terms, there are dreams all over the place--poor Candy's dream of being cared for, being independent, and not just being a burden on the ranch; his dream of his dog living on and on; Crooks's very quickly stifled dream of belonging; George's dream of being free of Lennie (which so tragically comes true); even Curley's dream of being something other than he is--a little bully. Isn't there a poignancy in the fact that his wife doesn't love him, and people don't really respect him? His father also, with those tragic 'higheeled boots' to show that he isn't an ordinary 'labouring man'. Everywhere you look you see people putting on faces to impress other people, or hiding secret yearnings--apart from Slim, of course, who doesn't seem to do this.

So dreams connect immediately to loneliness--because having a dream, in the novel at least, seems to imply that you are not happy with your life as it is. Isolation in the novel is such a central theme, partly because people don't share their dreams. Crooks barely dares to admit his, has to pretend he doesn't want company in case he's rejected; Candy can't admit his real feelings about his dog and stand up to Carlson. Imagine how different the novel would be if Curley's wife had confided in Curley rather than in Lennie.... Or perhaps it wouldn't be so different. People's dreams are not always crushed because they don't share them, after all, but sometimes because they do.

Interesting, though, what an enlivening thing George and Lennie's dream is... it enriches people's lives, it draws them into warmth and friendship. Curley's dream of being the best boxer doesn't exactly do that, does it?

Of Mice and Men

By popular request... What are the main themes of Of Mice and Men? Well first of all, and probably most importantly of all (as everything else connects to this in some way) you need to consider The American dream. This menas, very simply, the idea that because America is not (like England was perceived to be) a class-ridden society, where the position that you are born in determines your future, Americans in Steinbeck's time believed (as many still do) that it was possible to be born into a relatively humble position, and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, so to speak, and make a success of your like. Therefore, many people speak of Obama as 'living the American Dream' because he managed to overcome prejudice (though not huge economic disadvantage) and rise to the highest office in the land. Similarly, George and Lennie believe that they can make something of themselves and buy a small farm--be independent and a success in their own terms. Even this very humble dream is seen as unrealistic by others--for instance, by Crooks and by Curley's Wife.

The idea of the American dream connects to other kinds of dreams and ambitions. Curley's Wife, of course, longs to be famous, a 'movie star', which is another kind of dream at this time, when films were becoming a big industry, and it seemed possible for relatively unknown people to 'make it big' in the movies. It was a bit of a cliche that men would try and pick up young, pretty girls by telling them that they could do well in films, and so to a contemporary readership, Curley's Wife's report of the man who let her down would appear very naive. Her belief that her mother was hiding his letters would have been seen as foolish but also would have added to her innocence.

More later...

Today's Revision Task

Just in case you are getting bored with paper 1 revision already... Here's a new challenge. Create a persuasive manifesto for your own political party--or the party that you would like to be running the country--using as many rhetorical strategies as you can.

The Election

How many of you remember 'Vote for Me' from year 8? Coming back to you now that it is election time? All those skills that you learned then are still very relevant and useful for paper one--not only so that you can pick apart and analyse the ways that people are trying to persuade you, but so that you can imitate them in your onw persuasive writing.

Really good revision would be to keep all the leaflets that will come through your doors in the nest few weeks, and start to analyse them, working out the persuasive strategies each party uses. Whose is the most effective? Does the subtle use of persuasion actually bypass the critical faculties, or are you now so media-aware that you are not lured in?

Back to Revision

I hope that you had a good break over the long weekend--but, alas, no rest fo the examined ones, so by now you should be back to revision, and planning out your schedule for the next days and weeks.

A good place to start is with your paper 1 revision for your media book. Sticking in adverts and so on can be a restful occupation, while annotating them can be genuinely useful. For an interesting angle on the language of advertising, look at this article from the Guardian, published on April 1st. How many of those who saw it realised it was an April fool, and why? How do they use language to create an effective pastiche of political advertising campaigns?

Just to let you know....

I shall be posting every day during the Easter break to keep in touch with you, and give you more revision ideas. However, today is Good Friday, and you should not be working (neither should I) so I shall post at more length tomorrow.