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- Of Mice and Men feels like an allegory, with each character
possessing a specific trait that represents something or some group
in society. So, is the book just a heavy-handed lecture about how
nasty people are to each other. Are all of these wrongs (racism,
sexism, discrimination) treated as equally evil? Or are the
characters real, individual people, rather than being merely
types/symbols?
- The setting here is very specific. Do the events of the story
only apply to this particular place and time, or can the novel be
thought of as universally applying to humans everywhere?
- Why does George have to give up the idea of the dream farm once
Lennie kills Curley's wife? Was the farm ever a real possibility?
- How are the deaths of Candy's dog and Lennie related? Why do the
two have to die? Is it fair to draw a comparison between these two
events? Are Candy's dog's death and Lennie's death just different
degrees of the same kind of thing?
- Does any character escape prejudice? Is any character not
prejudiced? Given everyone's interaction with each other, how does
prejudice actually operate in the novel? Is prejudice just a code
word covering for some larger human failing and tendency towards
suspicion and isolation?
- Does George have the right to kill Lennie? Legally? What about
ethically? How does Steinbeck's treatment of Lennie's murder affect
the way the reader interprets the event? What does George's action
suggest about justice—within the play and in the world as a whole?
- The natural world is often described as beautiful and peaceful
in the book, though it's tempered with all sorts of awful
occurrences. What role does the natural world actually play in the
novel?
- How are the notions of power and shifts in power important here?
Who has power and why? Are there different types of power?
- What is Steinbeck saying about dreams? Is the book's take-home
message inherently pessimistic one? Should we all just give up and
stop dreaming?
* Some questions from SHMoop.
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