Basic English 12: Of Mice and Men Study Guide
Chapter 1: Pages 1-16
Define the following vocabulary words:
Bindle (3) –
Morosely (4) –
Brusquely (8) –
Contemplated (8)–
Anguished (11) –
1. What is the setting as the novel begins?
2. Describe George and Lennie’s relationship.
3. Why do you think George and Lennie are together?
4. Where are they going?
5. What does Lennie have in his pocket? Why?
6. Why do you suppose Lennie always killed the mice Aunt Clara gave him?
7. What happened in Weed?
8. What story does Lennie like to hear over and over?
9. What does George coach Lennie to do if there is trouble? Why?
Prediction: How will George and Lennie be treated at their new job? Will they ever get
the place that George tells Lennie about?
Chapter 2: Pages 17-37
Ticking (17) –
Swamper (18) –
Liniment (19) –
Gingerly (25) –
Ominously (27) –
Derogatory (27) –
Plaintively (29) –
Apprehensive (32) –
Complacently (34) –
1. Why doesn’t Lennie answer the boss when when he speaks to him?
2. How does George explain Lennie’s lack of intelligence?
3. What other lies does George tell the boss? Why?
4. Why doesn’t George like Curley right from the start?
5. Why does Candy say that Curley’s “pants is full of ants”?
6. How do Curley and his new bride get along?
7. What does Lennie think of Curley’s wife? What does George think of her?
8. What is your impression of Slim? How is he different from the others?
9. Why do you suppose Curley is so quick to fight?
Prediction: Will George tangle with Curley? Will Candy shoot his dog?
Chapter 3: Pages 38-65
Derision (38) –
Reprehensible (59) –
Bemused (60) –
Cowering (64) –
1. What was the last prank George played on Lennie? Why was it the last he’ll ever
play?
2. What further details do we learn about what happened in Weed?
3. Where does Lennie get the pup?
4. Why do you think Candy allowed Carlson to kill his dog? Should he have done it
himself – or refused to have it done?
5. Why is Candy so interested in Lennie and George’s conversation?
6. What, at this point, makes the dream seem a possibility of coming true?
7. Why does Curley pick on Lennie? How does Lennie end up hurting him?
8. Why will Curley keep quiet about what Lennie did to him and not try to get George
and Lennie fired?
Prediction: Will Curley get revenge? Will Lennie take good care of the pup? Is
Curley’s wife “jail bait”?
Chapter 4: Pages 66-83
Aloof (67) –
Disarming (69) –
Scornful (74) –
Crestfallen (83) –
1. Why doesn’t Crooks want Lennie to come into his room at first? Why dies he change
his mind?
2. Why does Crooks tell Lennie so much about himself?
3. What does Crooks say is good about Lennie and George?
4. Why does Candy come into Crooks’s room?
5. Why does Curley’s wife come to Crooks’s room?
6. What do you think of Curley’s wife? What kind of life does she want?
7. Why does Curley’s wife insult Candy, Lennie and Crooks? For which, if any, of these
people do you feel sorry?
8. How does Crooks offer to help out on the place George, Lennie and Candy are
planning to get? Why does he seem to change his mind at the end of the chapter?
Prediction: What kind of trouble will Curley’s “jail bait” wife cause?
Chapter 5: Pages 84-98
Jeering (84) –
Writhed (91) –
Bewildered (91) –
Sluggishly (93) –
Sniveled (95) –
1. What happens to Lennie’s puppy?
2. Why does Curley’s wife talk to Lennie in the barn? How is the conversation similar
to when Crooks talked to him?
3. Why does Lennie panic, and what happens as a result of his panic?
4. What incidents earlier in the story foreshadowed the killing?
5. Why is Candy so angry at Curley’s wife?
6. What plan does George come up with after Candy finds the body? Why?
7. What plans do the men make to get Lennie? Why does Curley want George along?
Prediction: What will happen to Lennie? Where is Carlson’s gun?
Chapter 6: Pages 99-107
Belligerently (102) –
Jarred (106) –
1. How has the story come full circle?
2. Why has Lennie come to the clearing?
3. What is he imagining?
4. Why doesn’t George yell at Lennie? Why does Lennie want him to?
5. Why does George take the action that he does?
6. Do you think he did the right thing?
7. Where did the gun come from?
8. How does George lie about the circumstances of Lennie’s killing?
9. What would happen if he told the truth?
10. What is the last comment in the novel? What is its significance?
Prediction: How do you suppose George gets along without Lennie? Does he ever get
the place he has talked about?