Study Questions
1. What scenes of death does Steinbeck describe in the beginning of Chapter 6 that parallel the events of the previous chapter and foreshadow the event to come?

2. How does the chapter bring the book full circle?

3. What two imaginary visitors does Lennie have while sitting on the river bank?

4. What is the subject of the conversation Lennie has with his first visitor?

5. What does his second visitor tell Lennie that recalls an earlier conversation he had with Crooks?

6. How is George and Lennie’s conversation similar to the one that they had by the pool in Chapter 1?

7. Where has George gotten the gun he takes from his front pocket while sitting with Lennie on the river bank?

8. What evidence is there that George is having a terribly difficult time bringing himself to shoot Lennie?

9. What lie does George tell about the way Lennie died?

10. What evidence is there that Slim understands what has really happened there on the river bank?

Answers
1. A water snake gliding in the pool is caught by a heron and eaten while its tail waves frantically, and a strong wind blows into the clearing and dies down.

2. The book begins and ends at the pool by the clearing.

3. While sitting by the clearing Lennie is visited by a hallucination of his Aunt Clara and of a gigantic rabbit.

4. Aunt Clara accuses Lennie of doing bad things. She tells him how George is always doing nice things for Lennie and taking care of him.

5. The rabbit tells Lennie that George isn’t going to let Lennie tend the rabbits and that he’s going to beat him with a stick. Like Crooks, the gigantic rabbit says that George is going to leave Lennie and never come back.

6. As in the first chapter, George tells Lennie how easy his life would be if he was alone. And Lennie tells George that he will run off to the hills and find a cave to live in by himself.

7. George has taken the gun he has from Carlson’s bunk.

8. The first time George raises the gun to the back of Lennie’s head, he can’t pull the trigger and lays the gun down again. The second time, when he does fire the gun, his hand is shaking violently.

9. George lets the men believe that he took the gun from Lennie and then shot him in the same attitude as they would have.

10. Slim shows that he understands what George has done as he consoles George and tells him that he has only done what he had to do.