1. L.O: To consider how space
represents mood in the novella.
To analyse the introduction of
characters in section 2
SPACE AND
ANTITHESIS IN
‘OF MICE AND MEN’

2. Task
• We need to consider locations and places in
the text.
• Today we will look at space and room.
• We will focus on chapter 2 and consider how
space is used and how this reflects on
characters.

5. Find a quote using…
• Death imagery
• Lists and long sentences
• Any language that suggests the room is
small/cramped
• What possessions the men have.
• Any language that suggests if this is a
masculine or feminine room?
• What effect does this have on a reader?

6. Questions
1. Find a quote that shows the bunkhouse is like a coffin.
What does this forebode in the novel?
2. Does the Bunkhouse fit with the description of what
the American Dream is made out to be?

7. Themes
• Dreams
• Loneliness
• The working man
• Prejudice and protest
• Fate and destiny

8. Antithesis
• What does this term mean?
• When two opposite words or two opposite situations
are put together.
• Antithesis happens a lot in Of Mice and Men; and
happens in Chapter 2.

9. Review
• Is the Bunkhouse a description of what
the American Dream is made out to be?
• What does this suggest about the
American Dream?

10. Characters
• Candy – Pg 39
• The Boss – Pg 41
• Curley 46-48
• Curley’s wife 46-48
• Slim 55-56
• Look at these sections and other place in the chapter.
• Find quotations and write key words relating to the first
impressions of these characters.
• Focus on physical descriptions and what we (the reader)
learn of their characteristics.

11. Homework
• Choose any one of the characters and answer the following
question.
• How does Steinbeck shape the reader’s opinion of this
character in the first two sections of the novella?
• Monday 2nd July 2014