1. Of Mice and Men By John Steinbeck

2. Chapter One Setting/Description? Intro – George & Lennie – Characteristics? – Why travel together? Significance of dream/future/“rabbits”?

3. Chapter Two Characters: George Milton, Lennie Small Candy (old man w/ old dog; missing right hand) Boss (interviews men; suspicious of G + L) Curley (boxer; foreshadowing – pp. 25-27) Curley’s Wife (flirtatious; a “tart”) Slim (authority figure; royalty – p. 33) Carlson (wants to shoot Candy’s dog) Lennie: “I don’ like this place, George. This ain’t no good place. I wanna get outa here” (32).

4. Chapter Three Light vs. Dark – Opening of chapter; also, p. 44 George & Slim – George’s “confession” to Slim (Why Slim?) – Slim’s understanding, admiration (p. 39) Shooting of Candy’s Dog: – No sense of Past (connection b/t Candy and dog) or Future (old age of men, Candy) – Loneliness: breaks up only other pair on ranch – Foreshadowing; dog symbolic of Candy?

5. Description of Farm (pp. 57-58) – Compare to Ch. 1 (pp. 14-15)? Curley vs. Lennie – Why? Lennie is (1) big and (2) laughing “HAND” – Various usages of this word? – Significance?

6. Chapter Four Crooks – Separated from others; aloof & distant (even proud!) – Lennie – innocent, no prejudice (68) – Crooks takes out anger on Lennie (72-73) Theme of Loneliness: – Curley’s wife, too, is lonely (77-78) Crooks is isolated due to _______? Candy is isolated due to _____? Lennie is isolated due to _______? Curley’s wife is isolated due to _______? Other ways people can be isolated? – Rest of Men? Drinking, playing cards (solitaire), and prostitutes (see pp. 52-53)

7. Allegory/Microcosm – Characters act as symbols, as types – Characters are not fully developed (Round), but are, rather, one-dimensional (Flat) characters – Significance of nicknames?

8. Chapter Five Friday night → Sunday afternoon – Aristotelian Unity? Good Friday → Easter Sunday? – Sun going down, increasing darkness Symbolism of horseshoes? Curley’s Wife – Sense of compassion; her story (88-89) – Description of corpse (92-93) Issue of Carlson’s gun Connections to earlier scenes: – Ideal vs. Real, Dreams (Curley’s wife, George & Lennie) – Violence (girl in Weed→Curley→Curley’s Wife) – “Soft things” (mouse→puppy→Curley’s wife) – “hide in brush” (foreshadowing)

9. Chapter Six Lennie’s two visions/hallucinations: – Aunt Clara (past? guilt?) – Rabbit (future? punishment/fear?) Change in George’s speech/story to Lennie? – “wooden,” “monotonous, had no emphasis” (103) – Also, note irony in speech (106) Men’s Reactions: – Curley: “Got him, by God.” – Slim: “Never you mind. A guy got to sometimes.” – Carlson: “How’d you do it?” Slim & George go off together to “get a drink”: – Optimistic? Pessimistic?