Of Mice and Men Book Club Questions

Ten discussion questions for John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (1937) - written for groups who have finished the book and want an argument, not a summary. Full spoilers ahead. The first six are anchored to this novel’s specific turns; the last four keep the room talking when the wine runs low.

Print questions

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1. 1. George's story about the ranch hands — 'guys like us' — is arguably the load-bearing lie of the book. Does he believe the farm is possible, or is the telling itself the point?

2. 2. Candy let Carlson shoot his dog and immediately regretted it. How does that scene rehearse the ending, and does knowing it change what you think George is doing in the last pages?

3. 3. Curley's wife is never given a name. Is that Steinbeck's cruelty, the men's, or ours — and does her final monologue in the barn redeem the men's reading of her?

4. 4. Crooks gets one night inside the dream and then takes himself back out of it. What does his retraction say about who is allowed to imagine a future in 1937?

5. 5. Is George's final act mercy, murder, or self-protection? Defend your answer against the strongest reader in the room, not the easiest.

6. 6. Slim is the book's only authority figure who is trusted by everyone. What is he doing in a novel otherwise made of men no one trusts?

7. 7. Which single decision in Of Mice and Men, made differently, changes everything — and would the book be better or worse for it?

8. 8. Where in Of Mice and Men did you stop trusting the narrator — or realize you never should have started?

9. 9. What does Of Mice and Men assume about its reader? Do you fit the assumption?

10. 10. Casting the adaptation of Of Mice and Men: who plays the protagonist, and who steals the film?

How to run the meeting

Don’t go in order. Open with whichever question matches your group’s mood - a quiet room starts with a character question, a lively one starts with an argument about the ending. Let one question run until it genuinely dies, then jump. Two rules keep it alive: every claim gets pointed at the text (someone will have the book on their phone), and “I hated it” counts as an opinion that must be defended like any other.

Of Mice and Men runs about 29,200 words - roughly 107 pages - so a month between meetings is comfortable at 30 minutes a day; the full session math is on the reading time page. For a quicker take on who actually finished it, open the meeting with the Of Mice and Men quiz - scores settle grudges faster than discussion. The book’s famous quotes make good meeting-openers too, and if the group wants a next pick built like this one, the books like Of Mice and Men list is the handout.

Taking the club through the whole author? Our John Steinbeck books in order guide orders the full shelf.

Ground rules that save meetings

Three habits keep a club alive past the first bottle. First, the person who picked the book opens the discussion - they owe the group one sentence on why they chose it, which is usually the strongest prompt of the night. Second, silence is allowed to sit for a full ten seconds; the second answer is always better than the first. Third, end on the next pick while everyone is still arguing, because momentum is the only renewable fuel a book club has. The questions above are written to survive all three rules.

More book club question sets

To Kill a Mockingbird questions, The Great Gatsby questions, The Scarlet Letter questions, The Grapes of Wrath questions - or grab questions for all 133 classics. For the end-of-season meeting, the mixed-classics book quiz settles who read the most.

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