Of Mice and Men Essay Assignment Guidelines
· You will write an essay with a minimum of five well-developed paragraphs on one of the topics from the Sparknotes site on Of Mice and Men.
· You will need ONE sentence that states what the entire essay is about—your opinion on the essay topic. This is your thesis statement.
· Your introduction is a general overview of what you intend to talk about in the body of the essay.
· Each of the three body paragraphs will have its own subtopic related to the thesis statement which will be stated in a clear topic sentence. You will support these topic sentences with evidence from the novel. Use quotes and page numbers, please.
· The conclusion sums up and restates your thesis.
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Discuss the book’s view of relationships between men.
2. Analyze Steinbeck’s portrayal of Curley’s wife as the lone female on the all-male ranch.
3. Paying attention to the long descriptive passages at the beginning of each section, discuss the ways in which the novella is similar to a theatrical play. Do these similarities strengthen or weaken the work? How?
4. Discuss George’s actions at the end of the story. How can we justify what he does to Lennie? How can we condemn it?
5. Discuss Steinbeck’s descriptions of the natural world. What role does nature play in the novella’s symbolism?
6. Analyze the characters of Slim, Crooks, and Curley. What role does each character play?
Example of thesis statement and related topic sentences:
THESIS: There are a lot of animals that would make great pets, depending on your individual circumstances. (Create an introductory paragraph that leads UP TO this thesis statement.)
Subtopic 1: Dogs
Topic sentence: Dogs make great pets if you have plenty of time and the space they need. (Explain, expand, support, develop this idea.)
Subtopic 2: Cats
Topic sentence: Cats are better pets for people who are away from home a lot or who live in smaller spaces. (Explain, expand, support, develop this idea.)
Subtopic 3: Fish
Topic sentence: At first glance, fish might seem like the perfect pet for the busy person, but there’s a lot more to owning fish than just sprinkling a little food on top of the water now and then. (Explain, expand, support, develop this idea.)
Concluding Paragraph: Restate your thesis (using slightly different wording) and either revisit each of your subtopics or head off into new territory. For example: As you can see, there are certainly a lot of things you need to consider when deciding what kind of pet to get. We have only touched on a few. You may also want to think about . . . .