QUESTION: Making OF MICE AND MEN pop?

[Matt Schade]

Hi All,

I'm currently developing some strategies for incorporating more non-print sources (film, TV, photography, music, etc.) into my curriculum for the upcoming school year. One canonical text I teach is Of Mice and Men, and I'm struggling to find quality pop culture and other media to use to highlight the novel's themes.

Here are some of the themes I explore with my 10th grade students:

1. Friendship and sacrifice
2. Work as a limitation to freedom
3. Steinbeck's idea of "the family of man"
4. The corrupting effect of wealth and power

One idea I have is to connect Mice to The Grapes of Wrath and to analyze Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad" or maybe Rage Against the Machine's version of it. Another idea I had was to show clips of Peter's interactions with Lumbergh in Office Space, like this clip about TPS reports (http://youtu.be/Fy3rjQGc6lA) or this clip about working on a Saturday (http://youtu.be/GjJCdCXFslY).

Any suggestions? I'm open to anything. Feel free to suggest new themes as well.

Thanks!

[Ryan Goble]

Matt, just caught this - I will try to Crowdsource this ASAP!  In the meantime check out these leads. The first two have a GoW foci but both have links and ideas you can tweak for OMAM

STI Lesson 9 - Woody Guthrie and The Grapes of Wrath

Teaching ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ With The New York Times
Linking Lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Me...
Split by Race and Wealth, but Discovering Similarities as They Stud...

[Ryan Goble]

You might also find some interesting interdisciplinary thematic connections by exploring / adding some themes more built around the psychological and biological issues raised by the book - if you preview - this American Life's "Cat and Mouse"and Radiolab's "Animal Minds"

[Meri Robie-Craven]

This election is all about many of the themes on OMAM - jobs, the American Dream, healthcare. You might be able to tie some of the platforms of the candidates to the themes in the text. One way to do it is to have groups "stump" for the candidates to the characters, taking into consideration what the characters would want from a president. Another way to do it would be to track some of the potential changes and extend the text to see how it might have affected the characters. (The Affordable Care Act is passed. How would that have changed Lenny's situation? Would it have saved Candy?; unemployment drops to 4%. How does that affect George and Lenny's situation? What opportunities open up for them (or don't)?) Just some ideas.

[Greg Williams]

I am not sure if this could help in anyway, but the very first episode in this Looney Tunes bundle has two characters that give a shout out to Of Mice and Men. The episode is only 7 or so minutes and may be a way of introducing corruption, friendship, etc. 

Good luck!