Of Mice and Men: Plot Flashcards
What happens in Section 2
1) George and Lennie start work on the ranch.
2) They meet the other ranch workers, the boss’ aggressive son Curley and Curley’s wife who comes into the bunk house and flirts with them.
3) Lennie is attracted to Curley’s wife and George is worried.
4) George makes Lennie promise to meet him by the pool if there is any trouble.
5) They also meet Slim, a jerkline skinner, who is a man with natural authority.
What happens in Section 3
1) George reveals to Slim what happened in Weed.
2) Slim gives Lennie a puppy from his dog’s own litter.
3) Carlson, a farm worker, convinces Candy, an old man who cleans on the farm, to let his old dog be shot.
4) Candy overhears George and Lennie’s plan to own their own place and he offers to put in money towards it if they let him join them.
5) Curley comes in and starts a fight with Lennie, hitting him until George tells Lennie to fight back. Lennie crushes Curley’s hand.
6) Slim makes Curley say his hand was injured in an accident.
What happens in Section 4
1) While the other ranch workers go to a cat house Lennie enters Crook’s room, a crippled stable hand.
2) Candy also appears and they tell Crooks about their dream for the farm.
3) They are interrupted by Curley’s wife who laughs at them and threatens Crooks with a charge of rape when he tells her to leave.
4) Later, Lennie accidentally kills the pup he has been given, not knowing his own strength.
What happens in Section 5
1) Lennie tries to bury the puppy in the straw in the Barn.
2) Curley’s wife comes in and they talk, and she invites him to stoke her hair.
3) She panics when she feels Lennie’s strength, and Lennie accidentally breaks her neck.
4) When the body is found it is obvious Lennie killed her.
5) The other men hunt Lennie down, with Curley keen to be the one to kill Lennie.
What happens in Section 6
1) George realises Lennie couldn’t bear a life in prison ; he also can’t stand the thought of him being lynched by Curley and the others.
2) George finds Lennie by the pool where they agreed to meet if there was trouble.
3) He makes Lennie imagine their dream, and then shoots him just before the others arrive.
4) Slim comforts George and tells him he had no choice.
Why is Section 1 important
1) It establishes the setting.
2) We are introduced to the protagonists, Lennie and George.
3) Their relationship is made clear.
4) We find out what happened previously in Weed (the reason they are here now), and are told where they are going next.
5) It provides initial clues about key ideas, themes and events which will come up again as the book progresses.
Why is Section 2 important
1) It introduces the Bunk House, the home of the ranch workers and the setting for much of the novel.
2) It introduces us to some of the main characters at the ranch.
3) Curley is clearly identified as a threat to Lennie and George, as is his wife.
4) We are given clear hints that there is trouble ahead.
Why is Section 3 important
1) It makes us think for a brief moment that George and Lennie’s dream might actually happen. Candy clearly has the money necessary. The dream is shattered by Curley, showing that real-life dreams rarely come true.
2) It explains in more detail the relationship between George and Lennie, and reinforces the importance of loneliness in the novel.
3) The mention of the cowboy magazine the ranch hands pretend to scorn but secretly admire is introduced. It is another dream , like Lennie and George’s - something unreal but something that helps make life bearable.
4) Lennie’s pathetic plea to George after he crushed Curley’s hand - ‘I didn’t mean no harm, George’ - sums up Lennie.
5) The shooting of Candy’s dog shows us the cruelty of the world portrayed in the novel. It prepares us for the shooting of Lennie.
Why is Section 4 important
1) The section is almost a rest period before the final climax. Many authors step down the tension a little before a major climax, almost as if to give the reader a break before a very demanding section.
2) The section introduces the issue of racial prejudice.
3) Lennie’s anger at Crooks warns us that Lennie can be dangerous.
4) The harsh injustice of the world is shown by the ease with which Curley’s wife can humiliate Crooks.
5) Loneliness is again emphasised.
Why is Section 5 important
1) It seals Lennie’s fate.
2) It shows the sad loneliness of Curley’s wife, as well as her negative affect on others.
3) It suggests that the dream of the farm will die with Lennie.
Why is Section 6 important
1) It brings the novel to a dramatic climax.
2) It finishes the novel back where it started.
3) It introduces for the first and last time two fantasy visions.
4) At the same time, it shows us Steinbeck’s brilliance at natural description.
5) It shows us the tragic but perhaps inevitable ending to George and Lennie’s relationship.
What happens in Section 1
1) George and Lennie, having walked a long way, stop at a pool by the Salinas River.
2) They are off to take up work at a nearby ranch.
3) They have had to leave their previous job for some, as yet to be explained, reason to do with Lennie.
4) It is clear that Lennie is slow to understand. He has been keeping a dead mouse as a pet. George makes him get rid of it.
5) We learn that they left Weed because Lennie touched a girl’s dress and she started shouting so they had to hide to escape the angry townsfolk.
6) George tells Lennie a story he has obviously told before about how one day they plan to have their own little farm.
7) George makes Lennie promise to meet him at the pool if he gets in trouble.
