Of Mice and Men Themes: 21 Thematic Text Pairings

When I went to college (in the dark ages 😂), we were not yet talking about backward design of essential questions, but we did create units around themes: pairing texts to build on the big ideas. This post is part of a series that now includes Frankenstein and Hamlet that give you the perfect thematic pairings for classic texts. Think of these ideas for Of Mice and Men lesson plans are based around both Of Mice and Men themes and Of Mice and Men essential questions. Think of it as a restaurant where they create a menu of perfect food and beverage pairings.

Oh and this post was by request. If you have a text you would like me to do a text pairing set, click here.

Of Mice and Men Themes

There are a number of themes in Of Mice of Men. A theme is a short statement that is a universal truth. I always tell my students that it is the thing that the author wants the audiences to understand about humans and humanity.

Theme statements:

The American Dream is ever present
Dreams are essentials to one’s wellbeing.
Friendship demands sacrifice
People with power will take advantage of those without.
Alienation (Loneliness) causes pain and destroys the self.
Responsibility is a choice and therefore has consequences.

Of Mice and Men Lesson Plans: Thematic Text Pairings

It is good practice to plan your units around the final assessment and skills you need to address through themes and essential questions. Below you will find Of Mice and Men theme statements, Of Mice and Men essential questions and Of Mice and Men lesson plans. Be sure to consider how the overall outcome of your unit by determining the skills you want to address and the final assessment.

Final Assessment ideas:

Write an argument essay in which students determine whether George had to do it.
Write an literary argument essay in which students determine the central idea in the text. They can pull evidence from the paired texts as well.
Or, check out these alternatives to the essay for ideas.

Need help preparing your Of Mice and Men Unit Plan, check out this free Of Mice and Men Unit Plan pdf to get you started. It included additional essential questions, theme statements, additional supplemental text pairing, essential skills and standards list and a workbook to help you develop your own unit.

Of Mice and Men: Dreams are essentials to one’s wellbeing.

Essential Question: What role do dreams play in our lives?

One of the dreams that keeps George and Lennie going is that of their future farm (and of course the rabbits). This poem, “Mirage” by Luis G Dato is a poem that dreams of the promise of land. The images mirror that of the dream of the farm. Pair it with the opening few pages as George paints the picture of the farm and the reader thinks it is still obtainable. Read the poem and then have students create a T-chart on which they pull similar images and ideas. Ask why the dream of land is important to people. Perfect pairing for Of Mice and Men Themes.

“Calling Dreams” by Georgia Douglas Johnson calls fate into the question of dreams. This is a great poem to use right after Lennie, Crooks and Candy have discussed the dream of the farm on the night when all the other men have gone out. Have the students read and annotate the poem and then have them consider the idea of fate and what role it plays in people’s dreams.

Of Mice and Men American Dream Theme: Lesson Plans, Supplemental Texts and Essential Questions. Free Of Mice and Men Unit Plan PDF.

Of Mice and Men: the American Dream is ever present.

Essential Question: What is the American Dream? Is it possible to achieve the American Dream

Of Mice and Men is knows as an American Dream novel. I sometimes open with the concept of the American Dream.

One of my favorite activities to introduce the American Dream is through poetry. Groups work together to complete a collaborative annotation and then examine the ideas that the poems present about America and dreaming.

Poems that we use for this activity:

“America,” Walt Whitman
“I Hear America Singing,” Walt Whitman
“Aunt Sue’s Stories,” Langston Hughes
“America,” Claude McKay
“On Being Brought from Africa,” Phillis Wheatley,
“Richard Cory,” Edward Arlington Robinson,
“The Congressional Library [excerpt],” Amy Lowell
“Good Night,” Carl Sandburg
“Chicago,” Carl Sandburg,
“The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus
“The Concord Hymn,” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Domestic Work 1937,” Natasha Trethewey

For more on collaborative annotations, check out this post. Or for a ready to use activity, check out [title of product].

Another way that I like to use the American Dream Theme to introduce Of Mice and Men is with quotes from John Truslow Adams who is credited with coining the term in his 1931 book called Epic on America. I use quotes from this site.

Grab a Free Of Mice and Men Unit PDF. This planner and workbook includes essential questions, themes, essential skills and supplemental texts to include in planning to teach Of Mice and Men in High School English. — Grab your free planner!

Of Mice and Men: Friendship demands sacrifice.

Essential Question: What does it mean to be a friend?

George and Lennie’s friendship is always one that brings up a lot of questions for students. Why are they friends? Is the friendship equal? And then, there is the end.

In a New York Times article, Todd May reintroduces the world to a concept that Aristotle established about the three types of friendships. This discussion of friendship is a great way to consider the needs of both George and Lennie.

You can use it pretty early in the novel or you could even use it as a way to introduce one of the Of Mice and Men friendship theme before you start reading. Read the article. Hold a discussion or do a four corners activity based on statements from the text. Then go into the reading and revisit the ideas after reading through chapter two.

Use this article by May (The New Times has a lesson plan). Or use Aristotle’s original text.

Of Mice and Men 21 Thematic Text Pairings to use in your next novel unit. Free Of Mice and Men Unit Plan PDF.

People with power will take advantage of those without.

Essential Question: What does it mean to be powerless?

“The Rabbit” by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a poem that I love to use after George has told Slim about what happened with the girl in the red dress in Weeds. The poem is about a rabbit who in its innocence can’t decide what to do when it hears the squeal of the hawk and how the speaker looks on helplessly as the rabbit freezes in fear.

Have students do a close reading on both the poem and the passage from chapter two. Once they are done, have students consider what each is saying about being powerless. Finally, have students examine the central idea of both pieces and how they connect.

Of Mice and Men: Loneliness and alienation cause pain and destroy the self.

Essential Question: Is alienation the cause of loneliness?

There are a number of characters in Of Mice and Men who are both lonely and alienated: Crooks, Curly’s wife, Candy, and Lennie (although he doesn’t recognize it).

To consider loneliness and alienation brought about as a result of race, Arna Botemps’s poem “A Black Man Talks of Reaping” is a perfect pairing. The poem relays the hard work that the speaker has done throughout his life with little to show for it. This is a perfect poem to use with the beginning of chapter four right after the descriptions of Crooks’s room. Have students focus on how the images in each establish the prejudice which is causing the alienation and therefore the loneliness.

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver is a beautiful poem to use at the end of the novel when George and Slim and lamenting the move that George just made. It talks both of loneliness and the idea that the world goes on. These are the same ideas that Slim wordlessly tries to convey to George. Have students do a close reading on the last page of the novel to examine how the sentiments are similar.

Another beautiful poem to pair with Of Mice and Men is “The Storm” by W.D. Ehrhart. You can find it in his collection of poetry called Beautiful Wreckage: New and Selected Poems (1999) and Thank You for Your Service (2019). It places a character “you” on a train platform, but when the train arrives they are unable to get on and therefore get left behind. This is a perfect poem to tie to Candy when he is left in the barn after having to tell George what has happened.

Of Mice and Men Themes: Ideas for Teaching

For even more ideas, including the Of Mice and Men Theme: Responsibility is a choice, be sure to download the free Unit Planner PDF. It included additional essential questions, theme statements, additional supplemental text pairing, essential skills and standards list and a workbook to help you develop your own unit.