Of Mice and Men Quiz Challenge - How Much Do You Know? | Steinbeck, John

Answer: Aunt Clara

Lennie lived with his Aunt Clara before she died and he started traveling and working with George. She would give Lennie mice to pet, because he loved them so much, but he used to crush them to death, so she stopped. When George discovered that Lennie had been carrying around a dead mouse in his pocket, George took the mouse and threw it into the river. Lennie retrieved the mouse from the river when he went into the trees for firewood that evening.

When he returned, George took the mouse away a second time and threw it as hard as he could into the trees, making Lennie cry. George also told Lennie that it wasn't healthy to carry around a dead mouse, and that Lennie had pet the mouse so hard that he had broken it.

Answer: Come back to the brush if there is trouble.

George and Lennie were sitting by the fire after their evening meal of beans. George had just finished telling the story of "how it's gonna be" with Lennie's help. He then told Lennie the most important thing that Lennie would need to remember. He told Lennie to look around and to remember where they were at that moment, and that the Salinas River flowed on for about a quarter of a mile to the ranch, and Lennie replied that he could remember. George then told Lennie, "Lennie - if you jus' happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an' hide in the brush."

Answer: Slim

Slim was by far the most respected man on the ranch. He was tall with long dark hair, and described as having a face that was ageless, so he could have been anywhere from 35 to 50 years old. Slim commanded such respect and authority at the ranch that not even the ranch owner's son, Curley, would tussle with him. Slim walked into the bunk house the day George and Lennie arrived and interrupted George's solitaire game.

When he sat down at the table he told George that he had "a pair of punks" on his team, and that he hoped George and Lennie could join him. George then praised Lennie's barley-bucking skill and began what would become a very good friendship with Slim.

Answer: To feel her dress

When Lennie and George were in the town of Weed they saw a girl wearing a red dress. Lennie liked to touch soft things like mice, and rabbits, and hair, and he reached out to touch the girl's soft dress. Frightened when the girl started to scream, Lennie held onto the dress even harder.

When he finally let go of the dress, she ran to tell the town law enforcement that she had been raped, prompting the men of the town to chase down Lennie to lynch him. George and Lennie escaped the men by hiding in an irrigation ditch for the remainder of the day, with only their heads out of the water.

Answer: Carlson

Carlson entered the bunk house one night and immediately froze to sniff the air. Smelling Candy's dog was too much for him that day and he confronted Candy about it. Carlson suggested that Candy should shoot his dog because it stunk and had rheumatism that made it all stiff.

He also said that Candy was only prolonging the dog's suffering by not shooting him, and suggested that not shooting the dog was being unkind to it. In the end, Candy let Carlson (who volunteered) shoot his dog, but he was full of regret after he heard the gunshot.

When talking to George later, Candy said, "I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog."

Answer: His hand

The same night that Carlson shot Candy's dog, Curley was angry because he thought that his wife, who he couldn't locate, was fooling around with Slim. After confronting Slim in the stables about his wife's illicit behavior, Curley stormed into the bunk house where George and Lennie had been discussing buying their dream farm with Candy.

When Curley rounded on Lennie for smiling, Lennie backed away from him, tried to cover his face against Curley's blows, and cried for George. When George saw that Lennie was too frightened to defend himself against Curley, he yelled for Lennie to fight back.

Hearing from George that it was okay to fight back, Lennie grabbed Curley's hand mid-swing and crushed it in his giant fist until it was mangled beyond recognition. Fearful that Curley would get Lennie fired, the men made him promise to say that his hand had been crushed in a machine before they would take him to the hospital to get it fixed.

Answer: "You got no right to come in my room."

Crooks lived in the harness room off the main stables and liked to keep to himself. He would play horseshoes with the men of the ranch, but when he was in the stables he wanted to be left alone. Crooks took great pride in his room and he kept it well-swept and neat.

When Lennie appeared in his doorway, naturally Crooks's first words were: "You got no right to come in my room. This here's my room. Nobody got any right in here but me." He then explained to Lennie that because he was black, the men of the ranch excluded him from the bunk house, so he excluded them from the harness room.

Answer: Curley's wife

Curley's wife walked in on Lennie talking to himself, and to the dead puppy, about whether or not George would let him tend the rabbits if George ever found out that Lennie had killed the puppy. Curley's wife had been lonely since the men refused to talk to her, and she did her best to charm Lennie. Lennie told her that he liked to touch soft things like rabbits, and mice, and velvet. She then asked Lennie if he would like to feel how soft her hair was. When Lennie pet her hair too hard she started to scream, making Lennie panic about the noise. In an effort to stop her screaming Lennie covered her mouth and shook her back and forth. The force of shaking her fractured Curley's wife's neck, and seeing what he had done, Lennie fled.

Curley's wife was never given a name in the book, but was always referred to, simply, as Curley's wife.

Answer: His gun

When the men arrived in the barn after their interrupted game of horseshoes, Slim checked Curley's wife and confirmed that she was dead. Curley immediately singled out Lennie as the only possible murderer, and left at a run to get his shotgun. Carlson left, following Curley out the door, to get his own gun, a Luger. Carlson soon returned to the group of men claiming that Lennie had stolen his gun, but in fact, it was George who had taken Carlson's Luger.

While the men had been in the barn inspecting Curley's wife, George had returned to the bunk house and retrieved the weapon.

Answer: Brush by the Salinas River

Lennie had finally remembered something other than rabbits. Lennie remembered that George had told him that if he was ever in trouble, Lennie should return to the brush on the banks of the Salinas River, where they had spent the night before arriving at the ranch. Lennie followed the river from the ranch to that very spot, and it was there that George found him. While he was waiting for George to arrive, Lennie imagined that he saw his Aunt Clara, who told him how worthless he was and how much better off George could have been without him. Lennie's haunting vision disappeared before George arrived on the banks. George asked Lennie to look out across the river and imagine what their lives would be like on a farm, tending rabbits. George told Lennie the story he had told a thousand times before and he assured Lennie that he wasn't mad at him; he never was, and he never would be. The entire time he was telling the story, George was trying to steady the gun in his hand. Just before the men arrived on the banks, with Curley yearning to shoot Lennie in the guts, George put Carlson's stolen Luger to the back of Lennie's head, and fired.

Slim later consoled George saying that it was kinder to Lennie for George to swiftly kill him, than it would have been for Curley to draw out the pain: "You hadda, George. I swear you hadda."