This article introduces Critical Literature Pedagogy (CLP), a pedagogical framework for applying goals of critical literacy within the context of teaching canonical literature. Critical literacies encompass skills and dispositions to understand, question, and critique ideological messages of texts; because canonical literature is often taken-for-granted as conveying literary merit or cultural value, it offers apposite opportunity to engage students with critical literacies. Using "Of Mice and Men" as an example, this article illustrates how literacy educators can use CLP to teach their students to examine how canonical texts are embedded in and shaped by ideologies.