Outcasts and Belonging
This is where the week opens outward — toward other thinkers, other art, and the help you need to do your best work.
The Migration Series
Jacob Lawrence, 1940–41. Sixty small panels painted at the same moment Steinbeck was writing — different people being moved and displaced. Look at three or four panels for sixty seconds each. Hold this series beside Crooks.
Following the Thread
This week, look for a moment when your character had a real choice — a moment of freedom, however small. Write a short paragraph about what they chose and why. Stay close to the text.
Open the CapstoneCamus and the Outsiders
This week we apply Camus's questions to the people on the edges of the ranch — Crooks, Curley's wife, Candy. Honors students continue deeper into Camus's own words.
Open the Lens ReadingCompare your narration
After you've written your own narration on paper, hold it beside this one. Nothing to submit — this is for your own noticing.
Everyone goes into town except the ones nobody invites, and one by one they end up in Crooks's room, whether he wants them or not. Crooks starts out sharp with Lennie — it's the one time he gets to be the man deciding who's allowed in. He teases Lennie about George not coming back, but he stops the moment he sees how scared it makes him. For a little while the room is almost warm: Candy comes in, the farm gets talked about, and Crooks asks — almost shyly — whether he could come along and lend a hand. Then Curley's wife stands in the doorway and reminds Crooks, in one sentence, how little his life would cost. He goes flat and small and takes back his offer like it was never said. The loneliest thing in the chapter is that she's lonely too — she just spends it on the one person lower than herself.
What makes it strong: It follows the temperature of the room — cold, warming, frozen — instead of the order of events. “He takes back his offer like it was never said” is the student's own line, not Steinbeck's, and that's exactly what a narration is for.
See the strong & weak pair on Week OneThe Existentialist Lens
A short companion reading for the ideas running underneath the novel — with an honors track for those who want to go deeper. Read it after the chapters, before you write this week's Capstone.
Open this week's LensTake a clear photo or scan of each finished section, then submit them to this week's assignment in Google Classroom.