Of Mice And Men Study Guide

Studied for Junior Cycle English exam years 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030.

This Of Mice and Men study guide holds the whole novel on one page. Use it in the last week, when you want the characters, moments, themes and quotes together. John Steinbeck published the book in 1937. It runs to six chapters, so a proper revision takes an evening.

Of Mice and Men study guide: three things that hold the book together

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The novel is a circle. It opens and closes at the same pool. What George tells Lennie in Chapter 1 is what Lennie does in Chapter 6.
Loneliness is the engine. Candy, Crooks and Curley’s wife each say so out loud. George says it first, in Chapter 1.
The dog decides the ending. Candy lets a stranger shoot his dog and never forgives himself. George hears him say so. Join those two scenes and Chapter 6 explains itself.

“Hide in the brush till I come for you.”
George, giving Lennie his instruction, in Chapter 1.

Steinbeck plants the ending on the first pages. That is your point in any question about structure.

Five characters, and what each one is for

George Milton. Small, quick and sharp tempered. He minds Lennie because of a promise to Aunt Clara, and stays out of love. He carries the dream, then the gun.
Lennie Small. Huge, gentle and forgetful. He wants to tend rabbits and stroke soft things. He kills a mouse, a puppy and a woman without meaning harm.
Candy. The old swamper who lost a hand on the ranch. His dog is shot in Chapter 3 and he buys into the farm that night.
Crooks. The stable buck, black, barred from the bunkhouse. He sleeps in the harness room and believes in the farm for a minute.
Curley’s wife. Never given a name. Married to a man she does not like, and watched wherever she goes.

Five moments the story turns on

Carlson shoots Candy’s dog, Chapter 3. The men lie in the bunkhouse and wait for the shot. Nobody stops it. The dog is no use now.
Candy buys into the farm, Chapter 3. He offers his compensation money minutes after losing the dog. The dream becomes a plan with a price.
Crooks in the harness room, Chapter 4. Lennie, Candy and Curley’s wife crowd into the one space Crooks controls. He asks to join the farm, then takes it back.
The barn, Chapter 5. Curley’s wife lets Lennie stroke her hair. He holds on, she screams, and he shakes her quiet. The dead puppy lies in the hay.
The pool, Chapter 6. George tells the farm story one last time and shoots Lennie while he is listening.

“I ought to of shot that dog myself, George.”
Candy, after the dog is shot, in Chapter 3.

Candy’s regret is why George does the last thing himself.

Five themes and where to find them

Loneliness. Spoken by the three people the ranch has least use for. It is an illness here, not a mood.
The dream. A few acres, a cow, some rabbits. It is about safety, not money, and it dies in the barn.
Friendship. George and Lennie are strange on this ranch because they travel together. Slim notices before anybody explains it.
Usefulness. A man here is worth what his body can still do. The dog, Candy’s hand, Crooks’s bent back.
Mercy and blame. Lennie does harm without cruelty. The book keeps asking whether that lets him off.

“When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me.”
Candy, on his own future, in Chapter 3.

His fear is what makes the farm urgent. Survival, not greed.

Five short quotes worth learning cold

Every quote in this Of Mice and Men study guide is ten words or fewer. Learn the speaker and the chapter with the words.

“An’ live off the fatta the lan'”
Lennie, repeating the dream, in Chapter 1.

“They got no fambly. They don’t belong no place.”
George, describing ranch workers, in Chapter 1.

“A guy needs somebody to be near him.”
Crooks, alone in his room, in Chapter 4.

“I never get to talk to nobody.”
Curley’s wife, talking to Lennie, in Chapter 5.

“You hadda, George. I swear you hadda.”
Slim, after the shooting, in Chapter 6.

Slim’s verdict is the only one on the ranch that counts. Use it to close an argument about mercy.

Where this novel meets Section C

The final written paper is two hours and 180 marks, which is 90 percent of your grade. Section C, Responding Imaginatively, carries 70 marks and examines your studied novel.

The questions repeat in shape from year to year:

A character you could not forget. George, Candy or Crooks.
A relationship that mattered. George and Lennie, or Candy and his dog.
A moment that stayed with you. Any of the five above.
A theme the text deals with. Loneliness and the dream are safest.
An ending that worked, or did not. Chapter 6 suits it.

No part of this Of Mice and Men study guide is plot summary, and your answer should not be either. Name the moment in one line, then say what it shows. At Ordinary Level the questions come in parts, and these moments still cover them.

A response to the novel can also sit in CBA2, your Collection of Student Texts. It is judged on the Features of Quality, from Achieved up to Distinction. The Assessment Task, worth 10 percent, follows in class and uses the same reading.

Three ways this answer goes wrong

Retelling the plot. Six chapters are easy to summarise, which is exactly why summarising them earns nothing.
Making Lennie only lovable. Chapter 5 will not allow it. Steinbeck writes the terror of Curley’s wife on purpose. Lennie is frightening and blameless at once, and saying both is stronger.
Repeating what the men say about Curley’s wife. They judge her before she has said a word. Agree with them and you take a side the book does not.

A thirty minute plan for the night before

Minutes 0 to 8. Read the three things at the top of this page, then the five quotes. Say each one aloud with its speaker and chapter.
Minutes 8 to 16. Reread the Chapter 3 summary. The dog, the fight with Curley and Candy buying in all sit there.
Minutes 16 to 24. Reread the Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 summaries. Most answers land there.
Minutes 24 to 30. Cover the screen and name the five moments in order, with their chapters. Whatever you miss, read again.

On the morning itself

Eat something. Bring two pens. Read every Section C option before you choose.

Pick the question where you can name a chapter in your first two lines. Not the one that sounds most impressive. Named moments beat big statements.

Quick recall

1. Why did George and Lennie leave Weed?

Lennie touched a girl’s red dress because he liked the feel. She screamed, he held on, and they ran.

2. What job does Lennie want on the farm?

Tending the rabbits. It is all he asks for, and the only thing he fears losing.

3. Why does George shoot Lennie himself?

Curley is coming with a gun and wants revenge, not a trial. George remembers Candy’s regret about the dog.