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Of Mice and Men

Section Four

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Complete the plot summary by filling in the blanks.

Plot summary (Section Four)

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Vocabulary

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The harness room

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Character study: Crooks

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Why does Crooks have a room to himself? Try to think of more than one reason.

Why is Crooks annoyed when Lennie comes into his room? Why does he eventually let him in? Again, you should be able to come up with more than one reason.

Why does Crooks torment Lennie by suggesting that George will abandon him?

Why does Candy feel embarrassed about coming into Crooks’ room?

Why does Crooks change his mind about joining George, Lennie and Candy on the farm?

Thinking about Crooks

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Marginalization: race

Crooks is marginalized because he is black. In the USA at that period, black people were treated as second-class citizens.

Segregation laws (known as Jim Crow laws from a derogatory term for a black person) dominated every area of life and frequently affected Native Americans and people of Asian origin as well as African Americans.

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Segregation

Essentially segregation meant that black people were confined to separate and usually inferior areas and facilities. They lived in different neighbourhoods, attended separate schools, and were barred from entering certain professions.

Some states refused to allow black people to enter theatres and restaurants.

Even public transport was segregated into ‘white’ seats and ‘black’ seats.

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Segregation

Find out more about segregation laws in 1930s California!

Segregation laws differed from state to state and altered over time.

In California in the 1930s some of them had been repealed.

But many white people still regarded black people as inferior.

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Thinking about Curley’s wife

Where is Curley?

Why does Curley’s wife come in?

Why don’t the men want her to stay?

Why does she insult them?

What does she threaten to do to Crooks?

Do you feel any sympathy for her?

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Female stereotypes

Think about the other women who are mentioned in the novel.

Lennie’s Aunt Clara The girl in Weed who, like Curley’s wife, wears red,

and who apparently shares her love of attention (she “rabbits in an’ tells the law she been raped”)

Old Susy who keeps the brothel in Soledad Susy’s rival Clara, who shares her name with

Lennie’s aunt

In the society depicted in the novel, women are perceived as falling into two categories or stereotypes: sex symbol or mother figure.

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Marginalization: gender

Curley’s wife hangs around the bunk house and the stable because she is lonely and looking for companionship.

But the men will not accept her as a friend because neither they nor she are capable of perceiving her as anything

other than a sex object.

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Double standards

Now think of all the derogatory terms the men use about Curley’s wife.

What do you think these terms say about the men who use them?

bitch

tramp

tart

looloo

rattrappoison

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Theme: loneliness

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Loneliness and dreams

Loneliness and dreams are closely linked in this section. All the men have dreams, but it is only when they stand together that it looks as if they may have a chance of

achieving them.

Reread Candy’s defiant speech to Curley’s wife.

“We ain’t got to stay here. We gotta house an’ chickens an’ fruit trees and a place a hunderd time prettier than this. An’ we got fren’s, that’s what we got. Maybe there was a time when we was scared of gettin’ canned, but we ain’t no more.”

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Predictions

In this section of the novel four of the loneliest and most downtrodden characters talk together about their dreams

of a better life.

At this stage in the novel, do you think they have a chance of achieving their dreams?

What do you think will happen next?

As ever, give reasons for your answer!

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Questions

How does the structure of the chapter reinforce a sense of futility? Which character do you think has most power in this chapter? Which has least? Give reasons for your answers.Choose one character. Writing from his or her point of view, describe your dreams, how you might go about achieving them, and what you think might stand in your way.“Crooks’ face lighted with pleasure in his torture.” Of Mice and Men is full of instances of cruelty, but rather than being confined to the powerful, it is often the underdogs who behave most viciously to one another. Why do you think this is? Can you find some more examples?

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Extension work

“I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but ever’ time a whore house or a blackjack game took what it takes.”

Crooks’ remark suggests that it is isolation as much as irresponsibility that prevents the disenfranchised of the novel from achieving their dreams. Discuss.