100 Fun Facts About Of Mice and Men

What does Lennie say he likes with his beans, sending George into a rant?

Ketchup: George has none, and the complaint sets off his rant about how easy life would be alone, until Lennie offers to go and live in a cave.

Of Mice and Men is set during which period of American history?

The Great Depression: the ranch hands earn fifty dollars a month, so the six hundred the farm would cost stays out of reach until an old swamper offers his savings.

What is Lennie's surname?

Small: the name is a joke on a huge man, and one ranch hand chuckles 'He ain't very small' when the two are introduced.

What is George's surname?

Milton: George gives both men's names to the ranch boss and does all the talking, which makes the boss suspect he is taking his partner's pay.

What animals does Lennie dream of tending on the farm?

Rabbits: George promises he can feed them alfalfa from the farm's own patch, and warns that any trouble means he won't be allowed to tend them.

Which town did George and Lennie flee before the story begins?

Weed: Lennie grabbed a girl's dress there and wouldn't let go, so the pair hid in an irrigation ditch all day to escape a lynch mob.

Of Mice and Men opens 'a few miles south of' which California town?

Soledad: the name is Spanish for solitude, which suits a story of lonely ranch hands in which George passes his evenings playing solitaire.

Which poem supplied the title Of Mice and Men?

To a Mouse: the poet apologises to a mouse whose nest his plough has wrecked, then reflects that the best-laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.

Who wrote the poem that gave Of Mice and Men its title?

Robert Burns: his brother Gilbert said he composed it in 1785 on the very day his plough turned up the creature's nest.

What was Steinbeck's original title for Of Mice and Men?

Something That Happened: Steinbeck wanted to record events without blaming anyone, then took his final title from a poem.

What happened to an early draft of Of Mice and Men?

A setter pup chewed it up: left alone one night, Toby made confetti of half the book, costing two months' work, yet Steinbeck allowed that the dog 'may have been acting critically'.

What is the name of the aunt who raised Lennie in Of Mice and Men?

Clara: when she died Lennie simply came along with George, who stopped playing jokes on him after Lennie obeyed an order to jump in a river and nearly drowned.

Which California city's Theatre Union staged its own version of Of Mice and Men in 1937?

San Francisco: Steinbeck designed the book as a 'play-novelette' in three acts of two chapters, and let the city's labour drama group stage it at its new Green Street Theatre.

Where does George tell Lennie to hide if he gets into trouble?

In the brush by the river: George makes him repeat it at their camp the first night, and it is where he finds Lennie waiting at the book's end.

Which Of Mice and Men character owns an old, blind dog that the other men want put down?

Candy: after letting another man shoot it, he tells George he should have done the job himself, a regret that hangs over the book's ending.

Where did most of the old swamper's savings come from in Of Mice and Men?

Compensation for his lost hand: the ranch paid him $250 after the accident, and with fifty banked and fifty due he offers $350 to join the farm plan.

In Of Mice and Men, who shoots the old swamper's ailing dog?

Carlson: he complains that the dog stinks up the bunkhouse and promises a painless shot to the back of the head, the way George will later shoot Lennie.

In Of Mice and Men, what is the job of the 'prince of the ranch', the one man Curley respects?

Jerkline skinner: he drives up to twenty mules with a single line, and Steinbeck says he could kill a fly on a mule's rump with a bull whip without touching it.

What does Curley keep on his left hand?

A glove filled with vaseline: the old swamper says Curley is keeping the hand soft for his new wife, which George calls a dirty thing to tell around.

Which sport did Curley compete in before the events of Of Mice and Men?

Boxing: Curley is a lightweight who reached the Golden Gloves finals, and the old swamper says he picks fights with big men because he resents not being one.

How does Lennie injure Curley during their fight?

Crushes his fist: Lennie only fights back when George yells 'Get him', and afterwards the men make Curley agree to say his hand was caught in a machine.

How did Steinbeck describe Curley's wife when explaining her role?

The other characters never call her anything but Curley's wife.

What did Curley's wife dream of becoming?

A movie star: she tells Lennie a man promised to write to her from Hollywood, and when no letter came she blamed her mother and married Curley instead.

How does Curley's wife die?

Lennie breaks her neck: she lets him stroke her hair, screams when he won't let go, and he shakes her in panic, fearing George won't let him tend the animals.

Why is Crooks isolated from the other ranch hands?

He is black: Crooks is barred from the bunkhouse and its card games, so he lives alone in the harness room with his books.

What does Crooks ask to do on the dream farm?

Hoe a garden patch: Crooks offers to work for nothing but his keep, then takes it back the same night, telling the others he was only fooling.

What does Lennie accidentally kill shortly before Curley's wife finds him in the barn?

His puppy: he had been told it was too little to handle, and after killing it he tries to hide the body under the hay so George won't find out.

Who is the only character who fully understands why George shoots Lennie?

Slim tells him 'You hadda, George' and leads him away for a drink, while the other two are left wondering what is eating them.

Which bird swallows a water snake at the start of the final chapter of Of Mice and Men?

A heron: in the first chapter it merely flaps off down the river, but in the last it stands motionless in the shallows and plucks the snake out by the head.

What did Steinbeck say the real Lennie did to a boss who fired his friend?

Stabbed him with a pitchfork: Steinbeck told The New York Times he saw it happen and couldn't stop it, and that the man was in a California asylum.

What did Steinbeck call himself when describing his youth to The New York Times in 1937?

A bindlestiff, a tramp who carries a bedroll: Steinbeck said he had worked the same country as his characters, who were composites of men he knew.

Which mail-order club chose Of Mice and Men as a selection before it was even published?

The Book of the Month Club: its choice assured substantial sales, and by November of the same year a stage version had opened on Broadway.

Which practice have would-be censors accused Of Mice and Men of promoting?

Euthanasia: some challengers made that charge, though the American Library Association, which ranked the book fifth among the most challenged of 2000–2009, recorded complaints of offensive language and racism.

Which game are the ranch hands playing outside while Lennie and Curley's wife talk in the barn?

Horseshoes: the men have four dollars riding on a Sunday tournament, so nobody leaves the game, and its clang drifts into the barn through the whole scene.

What work are George and Lennie hired to do on the ranch in Of Mice and Men?

Bucking barley: the work means heaving grain sacks onto wagons, and Lennie does it so tirelessly that one of the crew says nobody can keep up with him.

Which American classic did the stage version of Of Mice and Men beat to the 1938 Drama Critics' Circle prize?

Our Town: Thornton Wilder's play was runner-up with the New York critics but took that season's Pulitzer Prize instead.

Who played Lennie in the 1939 film of Of Mice and Men?

Lon Chaney Jr. won the film part over Broadway's Lennie, Broderick Crawford, after playing the role on stage in Los Angeles; it was his first major screen role.

Which composer scored the 1939 film of Of Mice and Men?

Aaron Copland: director Lewis Milestone resolved to hire him after watching The City, a documentary Copland had scored, at a friend's home.

Who directed the 1992 film of Of Mice and Men and starred in it as George?

Gary Sinise first saw the story on a school theatre trip at sixteen, and after staging The Grapes of Wrath he won the blessing of Steinbeck's widow to film it.

Who played Lennie in the 1992 film of Of Mice and Men?

John Malkovich had first played Lennie on a Chicago stage in 1980, and the film's director never considered anyone else for the part.

Which actress played Curley's wife in the 1992 film of Of Mice and Men?

Sherilyn Fenn: screenwriter Horton Foote made her character more sympathetic than in the novel, echoing changes Steinbeck himself made for the stage.

Which American composer turned Of Mice and Men into an opera in 1970?

Carlisle Floyd wrote his own libretto and added a harmonica-playing Ballad Singer who isn't in the book; Seattle Opera gave the premiere.

Which pistol does George take to shoot Lennie at the end of Of Mice and Men?

A Luger: George slips it from a bunkmate's bag, so the search party assumes Lennie stole it, and afterwards he lets them believe he wrestled it away.

What relation does George claim Lennie is to him when the ranch boss grows suspicious?

His cousin: George adds that a horse kicked Lennie in the head as a child, then admits to him afterwards that the family tie was a lie.

Which Chicago dance company debuted a version of Of Mice and Men in 2022?

Joffrey Ballet: choreographer Cathy Marston had two dancers perform George at once, one of them remembering the story and wishing he could change it.

Which honour did Steinbeck win in 1962, a quarter-century after Of Mice and Men?

Nobel Prize in Literature: asked whether he deserved it, Steinbeck replied 'Frankly, no', and Swedish archives later showed he was a compromise choice.

In which California town was Steinbeck born?

Salinas: he grew up in its farming valley and later laboured beside migrant workers on nearby sugar-beet farms, the experience behind Of Mice and Men.

Who directed the original 1937 Broadway production of Of Mice and Men?

George S. Kaufman staged it, but Steinbeck refused to leave California for the run and never saw the production.

Which two stars led the 2014 Broadway revival of Of Mice and Men?

James Franco and Chris O'Dowd both made their Broadway debuts, and it was O'Dowd, as Lennie, who came away with a Tony nomination.

Who played George in the 1939 film of Of Mice and Men?

Burgess Meredith: his George is already on screen before the opening credits appear, an unusual order for a film in 1939.

In Of Mice and Men's opening scene, what is Lennie hiding in his coat pocket to stroke as he walks?

A dead mouse is what George makes him hand over twice, the second time hurling it as far as he can into the dusk. Lennie says he only wanted to pet it with his thumb while they walked.

Which condiment does Lennie keep wanting on his beans in Of Mice and Men, though George has none?

Ketchup sets off George's angriest speech, about how easy his life would be alone. A frightened Lennie then swears he would not touch any even if it were right beside him.

What did Lennie grab in the northern town that he and George fled before Of Mice and Men begins?

A girl's dress, a red one, was all he wanted to feel, but he froze and clung on when she screamed. George had to hit him over the head with a fence picket to make him let go.

Where does George tell Lennie to hide if trouble finds him at the ranch in Of Mice and Men?

Brush by the river, at the spot where they camped the night before, is the place George makes him say over and over. It is exactly where George finds him in the final chapter.

Which relative raised Lennie from a baby and scolds him in a vision near the end of Of Mice and Men?

His aunt, Clara, took him in as a baby, and Lennie simply went along with George after she died. She appears as a little fat old woman in thick glasses who speaks in Lennie's own voice.

Which game keeps the ranch hands outside while Lennie talks with Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men?

Horseshoes, in a tournament she calls a 'tenement', has four dollars riding on it, so she is sure nobody will walk in on them. The best pitcher on the ranch is Crooks, the stable hand.

What does Of Mice and Men's old swamper say he should have done when a stranger killed his dog?

He should have shot it himself, he tells George that night, instead of letting a stranger do it. The regret hangs over George's own choice in the last chapter.

What does Curley's wife invite Lennie to stroke in the barn in Of Mice and Men, with fatal results?

Her hair is soft and fine, she boasts, unlike Curley's, which is 'jus' like wire'. When Lennie strokes too hard she jerks away, and in his panic he hangs on.

Curley's wife is the one major figure in Of Mice and Men whom Steinbeck never gives what?

A name of her own never appears: the other characters call her only 'Curley's wife'. Steinbeck later told the actress playing her on stage that her harsh, flirtatious manner was really a defence against fear.

George tells the boss in Of Mice and Men that Lennie is which relative, to explain why he speaks for him?

His cousin is the lie, padded out with a made-up childhood accident. Alone again, George snaps that if he really were a relative of Lennie's he would shoot himself.

Which make of pistol, taken from a ranch hand's bag, does George fire in the final scene of Of Mice and Men?

A Luger first appears when its owner uses it to put down an old, ailing dog. When it later goes missing, the men assume Lennie has stolen it, and Curley tells them to give him no chance.

In Of Mice and Men, the old dog and later Lennie are both shot in exactly which part of the body?

Back of the head is where the dog's killer promises it 'wouldn't even quiver', pointing with his toe. George aims at the same place, and Lennie too settles forward without quivering.

Steinbeck introduces Lennie in Of Mice and Men dragging his feet the way which animal drags its paws?

A bear is the image Steinbeck returns to in the last chapter, where Lennie arrives 'as silently as a creeping bear moves'. In between, his big hands are more than once called paws.

Whom does George blame for the long walk that makes him and Lennie late to the ranch in Of Mice and Men?

A bus driver dropped them miles short, swearing the ranch was 'jes' a little stretch down the highway'. George stretches the walk to ten miles when he repeats the excuse to the boss.

What false story about Curley's injury do the men agree on after the bunkhouse fight in Of Mice and Men?

Caught in a machine is the story Curley must tell, or the whole ranch will hear what really happened and laugh at him. His wife does not believe a word of it: 'Baloney!'

Lennie keeps breaking into George's story in Of Mice and Men to shout that they will live off the what?

Fat of the land, or "the fatta the lan'" as Lennie says it, means a few acres with a cow, some pigs and a vegetable plot. He knows the speech by heart but insists it is not the same unless George tells it.

What do George and Lennie do in Of Mice and Men that the other ranch hands find rare among working men?

Travel together is something hardly any ranch hand does: most arrive alone, work a month and move on alone. The boss finds it so odd that he asks whether George is taking Lennie's pay.

The old verse behind the title Of Mice and Men says the best-laid schemes 'gang aft agley', or often do what?

Go awry is the sense: however carefully mice or men lay their plans, they often fail. Every plan in the book, from buying the farm to keeping Lennie out of trouble, ends that way.

Before Of Mice and Men begins, where did George and Lennie hide all day in water from a mob?

An irrigation ditch hid them with only their heads above water, tucked up under the grass at its edge, while a search party hunted Lennie. After dark they slipped out of the district.

Which grain are George and Lennie hired to load in heavy sacks at the ranch in Of Mice and Men?

Barley is what the men 'buck', hauling the sacks in from the thresher for eleven hours a day. Lennie is so strong at it that he nearly wears out his partner on the first afternoon.

The stable hand Crooks in Of Mice and Men is called that for a crooked back, injured by what?

A horse's kick left his spine bent over to the left, and he rubs liniment into it alone at night. George borrows the same accident for a lie, telling the boss it happened to Lennie as a child.

Kept apart from the other men in Of Mice and Men, the stable hand Crooks has his bunk where?

The harness room, a little shed leaning off the barn, holds his bunk, a long box of straw, with a manure pile under the window. Only the boss and one trusted hand had ever stepped inside.

To which food does Steinbeck compare the tight rolled curls of Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men?

Sausages is the word for the little rolled clusters, and Steinbeck repeats it right up to the moment she lies still in the hay. She first appears with rouged lips, red fingernails and red feathered shoes.

The old swamper in Of Mice and Men insists his blind, toothless dog was once the best what he ever saw?

Sheep dog is his proud answer: he herded with it and has kept it since it was very young. The other men notice only the smell, and one of them keeps pressing him to let it be put down.

In Of Mice and Men, what is the man leading the old dog to its death told to take along?

A shovel is the order, three words from the ranch's most respected hand, so that the dog can be buried. Then the whole bunkhouse waits in silence for the sound of the gun.

Which card game does George propose in Of Mice and Men to break the silence as the men wait for a gunshot?

Euchre is the game, but nobody deals until the gun is heard: George just ripples the deck, and the little snapping noise draws every eye. Left alone, he lays out solitaire in scene after scene.

Whom does Curley's wife suspect of stealing a letter she was waiting for in Of Mice and Men?

Her mother denied it, but the suspicion was enough: she would not stay where her letters were stolen, so she married Curley. The same parent had stopped her joining a travelling show at fifteen.

What does Curley's wife threaten Crooks with in Of Mice and Men when he orders her out of his room?

A lynching is what she means by getting him 'strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny'. Crooks shrinks to nothing and answers only 'Yes, ma'am', and the old swamper admits nobody would listen to them.

Crooks tells Lennie in Of Mice and Men that his father owned which ten-acre California property?

A chicken ranch, with white hens and a strawberry patch, is the home he remembers sharing with two brothers. All three of them, he says, slept in the same bed.

George stopped playing jokes on Lennie in Of Mice and Men after telling him to jump into which river?

The Sacramento nearly killed him: Lennie obeyed at once although he could not swim a stroke. Hauled out, he was so grateful to George that he clean forgot who had told him to jump.

In Of Mice and Men, George says he and Lennie could quit and go up the American River to do what?

Pan for gold is his escape plan once the ranch starts to feel dangerous: maybe a couple of dollars a day, and they might hit a pocket. Lennie begs to leave at once, but George says they must stay.

What do the boss and his son Curley wear in Of Mice and Men to show that they are not labouring men?

High-heeled boots, with spurs in the boss's case, are worn to prove the wearer does not lift sacks for a living. The old swamper notes that the one hand everybody looks up to needs none.

Which crop does George promise to grow in Of Mice and Men so that Lennie can feed the animals he tends?

Alfalfa is Lennie's job in the dream: he will fill a sack with it and carry it to the cages. Crooks knows the picture well, because his own father's place had a patch of it too.

In the last lines of Of Mice and Men, what does the one man who understands take George to do?

Get a drink is all he offers, after telling George 'You hadda' and helping him to his feet. The two men left behind are baffled, and one wonders aloud what is eating them.

What is plucked from the river and swallowed head-first as the last chapter of Of Mice and Men opens?

A water snake glides up the pool with its head held like a periscope and is taken by a motionless hunter in the shallows, its tail still waving. A second one swims the same way just before Lennie arrives.

Which Gossip Girl star played Curley's wife in the 2014 Broadway revival of Of Mice and Men?

Leighton Meester, television's Blair Waldorf, made her Broadway debut in the part. The production was also the first Broadway show chosen for cinema broadcast by National Theatre Live.

Which Doctor Who star played George in BBC Radio 4's 2010 dramatisation of Of Mice and Men?

David Tennant took the part for the Classic Serial strand in the year his run as the Tenth Doctor ended. As a three-year-old he had told his parents he wanted to act because he loved that show.

Of Mice and Men opens on a Thursday evening and ends on the afternoon of which day?

Sunday afternoon brings the ending, so the whole story covers barely three days. George and Lennie reach the ranch on Friday morning, and a hand jokes that they came too early to dodge any work.

Which employment agency gives George and Lennie their work cards in Of Mice and Men?

Murray and Ready's handed over the cards after the two men had sat in a gutter on Howard Street watching a blackboard. George keeps both cards himself, not trusting Lennie to carry his own.

In Of Mice and Men, George reveals that he and Lennie were both born in which California town?

Auburn is where George got to know the woman who raised Lennie. When she died, Lennie simply came along with him to work, and the two grew used to each other.

Which young ranch hand in Of Mice and Men is sent to town to fetch the deputy sheriff after the killing?

Whit has no gun, so Curley sends him for Al Wilts, the deputy sheriff. Earlier he is the one proudly showing round a pulp magazine that printed a letter from a former workmate.

Which mountains catch the last sunlight in the opening and closing scenes of Of Mice and Men?

The Gabilans flame with evening light in chapter one and turn rosy again as Lennie waits alone at the end. George has him gaze up their darkening slopes while he listens to the old story.

Which actor, known for the National Lampoon's Vacation films, played Lennie in a 1981 TV film of Of Mice and Men?

Randy Quaid took the part in a television film, eight years after The Last Detail brought him an Oscar nomination. He went on to play the same comic in-law in four of the Vacation films.

Besides a tattered dictionary, which worn book does the stable hand Crooks own in Of Mice and Men?

California's civil code, in a mauled 1905 edition, suggests a man who has studied exactly what rights he has. He tells Lennie that nobody has any right in his room but him.

George and Lennie camp in Of Mice and Men beneath which trees with mottled, white, recumbent limbs?

Sycamores arch over the pool, and one giant has a low limb worn smooth by all the men who have sat on it beside the ash pile of old fires. The spot is a regular camp for tramps coming down off the highway.

The leads of the 1992 film of Of Mice and Men had played the roles in 1980 for which Chicago theatre?

Steppenwolf staged the play twelve years before the film reached cinemas. The film went on to compete at Cannes, where the audience gave its cast a standing ovation.

What is rung outside the bunkhouse in Of Mice and Men to call the ranch hands in to their dinner?

A triangle starts ringing slowly, then faster and faster until the beats blur into one sound. The newcomers are warned to hurry, because in a couple of minutes there will be nothing left to eat.

What did the ranch boss in Of Mice and Men bring into the bunkhouse for his men one Christmas?

A gallon of whisky came with the toast 'Drink hearty boys. Christmas comes but once a year.' The old swamper tells the story to show that the boss, for all his temper, is a pretty nice fellow.

What is nailed above each bunk in Of Mice and Men to give a ranch hand two shelves for his belongings?

An apple box, opening forward, holds each man's soap, razor, medicines and the Western magazines the hands 'love to read and scoff at and secretly believe'. Crooks has one over his own bunk as well.

At what kind of venue does Curley's wife say she first met Curley in Of Mice and Men?

A dance hall called the Riverside Dance Palace is where they met, and she tells Lennie something she has told nobody else: she does not like Curley, because he 'ain't a nice fella'.