SETTING & TIME PERIOD
This state is where George and Lennie travel to find work on ranches during the story.
What is California?
This man gains power on the ranch because he is the boss’s son.
Who is Curley?
This term describes unfair treatment that comes from big systems, not just individual people, such as racism, sexism, ableism, or poverty.
What is systemic injustice?
(Unfair treatment built into big systems.)
This action Lennie does to the mouse at the beginning of the story shows that he does not know his own strength.
What is he accidentally kills the mouse?
This shared dream motivates George and Lennie to keep working toward a better future.
What is owning a little farm of their own?
This major economic crisis in the 1930s created poverty, job loss, and unstable work for men like George and Lennie.
What is the Great Depression?
This is the reason Lennie is easily targeted or bullied by other men on the ranch.
What is because Lennie has a mental/developmental disability and cannot defend himself verbally?
These groups of people on the ranch have less power because of how society is set up.
Who are women, Black workers, disabled workers, older workers, or poor migrant workers?
This injury happens to Curley when he picks a fight with Lennie in the bunkhouse.
What is Lennie crushes Curley’s hand?
This animal Lennie wants to care for becomes a symbol of comfort and hope in the dream.
What is tending the rabbits?
This explains why migrant ranch workers like George and Lennie must move from job to job.
What is because ranch jobs are temporary so workers must keep traveling?
This physical condition and fear of being fired explain why Candy feels he has little power.
What is because Candy is old and missing a hand?
This form of systemic injustice forces Crooks to live separately from the white men in the bunkhouse.
What is racism?
This event involving the puppy foreshadows the tragic accident in the barn.
What is Lennie kills the puppy by petting it too hard?
This reason explains why Candy wants to join George and Lennie’s plan to buy a farm.
What is Candy wants safety, a home, and a future?
This is the reason George and Lennie arrived late for their first day of work at the ranch.
What is the bus driver dropping them off too far away?
This explains why Crooks is forced to live alone in the barn with the horses and other animals.
What is racism / segregation forcing him to live alone?
This violent threat Curley’s wife makes in the barn shows how systemic injustice can be used as a weapon.
What is the threat of getting Crooks lynched (swung up from a tree)?
This tragic accident happens after Curley’s wife lets Lennie touch her hair.
What is Lennie accidentally breaks Curley’s wife’s neck?
This explains why Crooks doubts George and Lennie's dream will ever come true at first but later, changes his mind and asks to join them.
What is Crooks saying most men’s dreams never come true?
This is the name of the town where George and Lennie used to work before they had to run away because of the trouble with “the girl in the red dress”.
What is Weed?
This person uses the small amount of power she has by threatening or intimidating others, especially those with less power.
Who is Curley’s wife?
This is one way a real case we studied (Emmett Till, Kenny Laynez) is similar to how a character in the book is treated unfairly.
What is that these real people were targeted or harmed because of how they looked—similar to Crooks, Lennie, or other powerless characters?
This choice George makes at the end shows mercy, because he protects Lennie from pain and from being hurt by Curley’s lynch mob.
What is George shoots Lennie to protect him from Curley?
This is why Steinbeck chose to name his book "Of Mice and Men" because he was inspired by the line “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go wrong” from the poem “To a Mouse”.
What is because the line/poem means that even the best plans can fall apart, just like George and Lennie’s dream of owning a farm fails?