We analyzed the themes of isolation and loneliness by addressing how the major characters are societal misfits. We focused on Crooks, the Black stablehand, who is disabled and deemed racially inferior by everyone at the ranch. At first, Crooks becomes entranced by the possibility of joining Lennie and George in pursuing their "dream" to own their own farm. However, prevalent racism forces Crooks to realize he is truly trapped and alone and will never escape his station in life . We further discussed Curley' s wife as a sympathetic lonely character who also has unrealized dreams. Marcel located the foreshadowing of the accidental death of Curley's wife, and further identified other examples of the inevitability of all the characters' dreams being frustrated by external realities or forces. We looked over Marcel's study guide answers and modified and amplified responses to questions on plot sequences surrounding the death of Curley's wife, as well as questions surrounding Curley's wife's naiveté in allowing Lennie to stroke her hair .As Marcel had questions with respect to how to write an analysis of quotes from the novel ,I provided instruction on this area ,and we together worked on writing complete answers to study guide questions requiring quote explication. We discussed how to contextualize, to paraphrase, and last to address thematic or character significance of a quote. Marcel then completed two much improved quote analyses from the novel. For homework, read final chapter and answer ch 6 study guide questions.