The novella is set up like a play or a screenplay. Setting is described first and then characters enter it and exit it as if on a stage or shooting location. The action takes place over 3 days (Biblical number), and it uses four major locations:
1) The idyllic "Garden of Eden" wooden area by the river.
2) The bunkhouse on the ranch
3) Crooks' room (in the barn)
4) The barn proper
The fifth (5th) location is not real: it is the fantasy ranch that George, Lennie, and Candy save up money to buy where they can farm and tend rabbits--the "American Dream" haven from a heartless world.
Notice: only one location, the bunkhouse, is meant for human dwelling: the rest are more or less for animals. Also notice: only one location, Crooks' room, does not contain violence (see below).
Also mentioned are the boss' house and the cathouse. Lennie and George visit the boss' house when they are hired (George is supposed to do all the talking). Lennie cannot visit the cathouse.
Notice that the locations can be broken down in terms of socio-economic status and violence:
1) by the river: secret world only George and Lennie know about, unlivable; a place to camp (low class); the scene of the Lennie's mercy killing
2) the bunkhouse: where the men stay (low class). infested with lice; place of violence (where Lennie breaks Curly's hand and where Carlson takes Candy's dog to shoot).
3) Crooks' room (lowest class); only the outcasts visit; yet, it is a library, the most intellectual place on the ranch; it's a section of the barn, not far from the animals, not meant for human dwelling. No violence committed here (Crooks suggests something might happen to George and Lennie gets mad, but it is purely conjecture).
4) the barn (below class); place for animals; another scene of a crime (murder of Curley's wife)
So says one critic: "The tight structure of setting, revolving around single locations and continuous timing, make the novella seem almost as if it were set as a play."
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