1. OF MICE AND MEN
L.O To understand how the status
of characters varies in the novel.

2. Use the cards to rank who has the most power
and the least power on the ranch. The person
with the most power should be at the top. The
person with the least amount of power should
be at the bottom. Provide reasons for why
he / she should have that ranking.
The social hierarchy

3. “They left all the weak ones here”

4. Who are “the weak ones”?
•List the characters that Curley's wife is referring to when
she makes this statement.
•In what way are these characters weak?
•Find a quote to support each answer.

5. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural
selection, or ‘survival of the fittest’ promoted the
idea that individuals having any advantage over
others, however slight, ‘would have the best
chance of surviving and of procreating their kind’.

6. Survival of the fittest.
•In Darwin's theory the weak ones will die in order to protect
the future of the species.
•Where would disabled people fit into this?
•Who is disabled in the novel?

7. Will the fittest survive?

8. Past question (Summer 2010)
•
c) A critic said about Of Mice and Men: “the characters are
powerless.” Do you agree? Give reasons to support your
opinions.
[20]
•
lan a response to this question.