1. Of Mice and Men
What you should know

2. Context
• When the novel is set
• Historical/social factors that are relevant to
the time it is set
• Where the novel is set and why
• How the context affects the plot,
characters and themes
• Could you answer the question How are
the ranch workers affected by the context
of the story?

3. Great Depression
California
Relationships
Mass unemployment
Migrant/itineran
t workers
1930s
Racism/inequality
Dreams
Real places
“No Help Wanted”
Ranches
No benefits
Hunger
American Dream

4. The title
• Alliterative connection between mice and men –
both subject to fate
• Context of title gives biggest clue as to
tragedy/pessimism for the dream
The best laid schemes o’ mice and men
Gang aft a-gley (often go wrong)
• Struggle for survival in Burns’ poem hints at
vulnerability and helplessness of characters
• Could you answer the question What is the
significance of the title?

5. Plot
• Know the story inside out ie. READ and
RE-READ
• Write detailed summaries of each of the
six chapters so you know exactly when all
the main events take place
• Consider what we learn about the past
and the future in each section

6. When did it happen?
• Lennie breaks Curley’s wife’s neck
• Candy shows them around the bunkhouse
• Lennie goes to the brush, as instructed by
George
• Lennie has a dead mouse in his pocket
• Candy’s dog is shot
• All the men go into town except Crooks,
Candy and Lennie

7. Characters
• Physical description
• Personality and behaviour
• What events/themes they are involved in
• What role they play/their importance
• Relationships with other characters
• What they say/what others say about them
• Use of language
• Could you answer the question It is possible to
feel sympathy for all the characters in the novel.
Which of the characters do you feel most
sympathy for?

8. Carlson
Lennie
Candy
George
Mice
Candy’s dog
Slim
The Boss
Curley
Curley’s wife
Crooks
The pups
Whit

9. Who…
• Used to be a boxer?
• Is the swamper?
• Is the jerkline skinner?
• Likes to gossip about people?
• Acts like a parent?
• Taunts Lennie?
• Shoots Candy’s dog?

10. Themes
• Themes are the main ideas which run
through the novel
• They help us to identify Steinbeck’s
intentions when writing the novel ie. the
issues he wanted to highlight
• Link them to characters and events
• Could you answer the question Discuss
the importance of dreams in the novel.

11. Power/authority
Hardship
Nature
Friendship
Discrimination
Isolation/loneliness
ViolenceDreams

12. Setting
• Ensure you know where the novel is set and why
• Setting is made clear at the start of every
chapter – like stage directions in a play – and all
the chapter events take place in that location
• Steinbeck uses real geographical locations
• Remember that Soledad means ‘loneliness’
• Could you answer the question Choose one of
the settings and show how it is important to the
novel as a whole.

13. The Bunkhouse The Bunkhouse
Crook’s room (the
harness room)
Clearing by the
Salinas river
Clearing by the
Salinas river
Barn
Which chapter?
Why important?

14. Imagery/symbolism
• Animals
• Hands
• Names
• The colour red
• Light and darkness

15. Key Quotations
• Learn some short quotations so that you
can use them in your longer essay
response
• Organise these under the headings:
characters, themes, plot, setting, language
• Keep the quotations short
• If you can’t remember them exactly, you
can paraphrase

16. Who says?
• “I seen the guys that go around on the ranches
alone. That ain’t no good.”
• “You hadda, George. I swear you hadda.”
• “Coulda been in the movies an’ had nice
clothes.”
• “Why do you got to get killed. You ain’t so little
as mice.”
• “Come on ya big bastard. Get up on your feet.
No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me.”
George
Curley
Slim
Curley’s wife
Lennie

17. Structure
• Novella
• Similar style to a play - importance of
entrances and exits, use of visual description
• Significance of opening and ending
• Chronological order
• Cyclical structure eg. opens and closes in
same place and the characters’ lives are
routine so become monotonous
• Use of foreshadowing eg. which events give
hints as to what will happen later on?

18. Foreshadowing
What do the following foreshadow?
• The shooting of Candy’s dog
• The events in Weed
• The dead mouse in chapter one
• Lennie crushing Curley’s hand

19. Language and style
• Use of omniscient narrator (3rd
person)
• Use of unusual metaphors and similes
• Vivid description of landscapes, setting and
colour
• Californian accent and dialect to emphasise
characters and setting
• Colloquial word choices, specific to ranch life
• Swearing/racist comments – to shock? For
realism?