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Reading Questions

Chapters 2-5

ANSWER IN COMPLETE SENTENCES.

Chapter 3

1) Why doesn’t George accept Slim’s compliment about being bright?

2) Why does Carlson want Candy to shoot his old dog?

3) Why does Slim condone Carlson’s desire to shoot his dog? Do you think this is consistent with what we already know about Slim’s personality?

4) What is Candys reaction to the killing of his dog? What might this portend for him?

5) What is George’s philosophy about women? How does it explain the attitude Steinbeck depicts toward Curley’s wife?

6) Why do you think George and Lennie “jumped as though they had been caught doing something reprehensible” when they were interrupted in their talk about a farm of their own? Given their present reality, what is so reprehensible about their dreaming their dream?

7) Why does George allow Candy to become part of their dream to own a farm? How does this affect the reality of their dream?

8) Why is Lennie reluctant to fight Curley? What is the result of the fight between Curley and Lennie? What does this show about Lennie’s strength?

9) Steinbeck has endowed the character of Slim with God-like attributes. What are some of the specific allusions that illustrate this?

Chapter 4

1) Why do you think Crooks defends his territory so strongly?

2) Has Crooks’ background prepared him for the isolation he experiences on the ranch?

3) How does Lennie respond when crooks says, “If I say something, why it’s just a n…… sayin’ it”?

4) Why does Crooks force Lennie to imagine life without George?

5) What problem does Curley’s wife have in common with crooks? What is the source of her problem?

6) What is Curley’s wife really threatening when she yells at Crooks, “Listen, N….You know what I can do to you if you open your trap”? How effective is this threat?

7) Why does Crooks pretend not to want to live on the ranch with Candy, George, and Lennie?

8) Does the author intimate the men’s dream will end in success or failure? How have you reached this conclusion?

CHAPTER 5

1) One of the motifs in this novel is alienation or isolation. How does each of the characters reveal this idea? How does the conversation between Curley and crooks further illustrate this theme?

2) What does Curley’s wife have in common with the men in the bunkhouse?

3) What is the author’s purpose for having Lennie talk to himself and to Curley’s wife about the way the puppy died?

4) Why does Lennie kill Curley’s wife? Do you think she is guilty of enticing Lennie and thereby bringing about her on death?

5) Why does George have Candy pretend to discover the body a little later than he actually did?

6) How does the death of Curley’s wife affect Lennie, George, Candy and Curley?

7) Steinbeck states “A moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment…Then gradually time awakened again and moved sluggishly on.”

*What moment is this description describing?

*What literary device is being used in this description and what is the author’s purpose for using it?

8) Using the elements of the fictional plot structure, explain what events fall into the first four aspects of the plot structure.

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