How Steinbeck creates sympathy for Candy in Of Mice and Men

I believe that Crooks is most similar to Candy as in the social hierarchy of the ranch, both suffer from a disability that places them in the lowest rank. As mentioned, Crooks is lonely and isolated from the others due to the colour of his skin, yet Candy is lonely because he’s not as abled as the other workers. Because he is handicapped, he cannot do the work that the other men do, so when they go off to do work, Candy is left behind. The theme of loneliness is conveyed throughout the novel. Steinbeck also portrays loneliness through characterisation. He uses sexism, racism and ageism to get his message across. When George talks to Candy and his antiquated dog, Candy states to the inarticulate George:

John Steinbeck uses symbolism to signify ideas and qualities by giving them a meaning. For instance, Candy’s dog. Candy’s dog represent the fate awaiting anyone who has outlived his or her purpose. Candy’s dog is old and weak so he is no longer needed in the world. Although, Carlson promises to kill the dog painlessly, his insistence that the old dog must die supports a cruel natural law that the strong will dispose of the weak. “That dog of Candy's is so God damn old he can't hardly walk. Stinks like hell, too. Ever' time he comes into the bunk house I can smell him for two, three days. Why'n't you get Candy to shoot his old dog and give him one of the pups to raise up? I can smell that dog a mile away. Got no teeth, damn near blind, can't eat. Candy feeds him milk. He can't chew nothing else." Candy knows this lesson, for he fears that he himself is coming to an end when he will no longer be useful at the ranch.

She is forever associated with a man that she hates. Even Lulu, Candy’s dog, has a name. With the inclusion of Suzy, a woman who owns a brothel, Steinbeck allows readers to understand the hypocrisy of society during the Great Depression. Curley’s wife is lonely. She is condemned to marry a man she despises, is forced to abandon her dreams and forbidden to talk to anyone. She is desperate. Desperate for companionship. She tries talking to the men on the ranch but is isolated on the assumption that she is a temptress. Despite her never acting on any sexual endeavours due to society’s restricting motifs that women could only be a housewife or a temptress, the men suppose she is trying to seduce them. Due to these unfair assumptions, she is seen to be nothing but trouble and this diminishes her worth to men. Suzy on the other hand, although a woman, is celebrated because she provides prostitutes for the men. This shows that, if women during the Great Depression were of use to men, they would be commemorated, but if they weren’t, they would be marginalised, seen as inferior and forced to be property of their husbands.

Carlson, the ranches ranch-hand is a blunt and a simple character. His hard life on the ranch has made him cruel and callous, one of his first lines is, “Well looka here Slim. I been thnkin’. That dog of Candy’s is so God damn old he can’t hardly walk. Stinks like hell, too … I can smell him for two, three days. Whyn't you get Candy to shoot his old dog and give him one of the pups to raise up? ” (Steinbeck 36) Immediately the reader is greeted with Carlson's malicious personality, he can’t understand the struggle that Candy faces when faced with the reality that his dog must be killed. Carlson is self-serving and unsympathetic, for he repeatedly tells Candy that he should just kill the dog already. Moreover, he even offers to kill the dog in place of Candy, finally convincing Candy and kills the dog. George on a different matter decides to kill Lennie, rather than allow him to be brutally murdered by the others. George must confront the reality of killing his only friend for the better good for the both of them. George realizes that Lennie can’t survive in the harsh world that they live in and with a shaking hand, “He pulled the trigger.” (Steinbeck 106) George is kind and caring, for when killing Lennie he tells Lennie to “Look down there acrost the river, like you can almost see the place.” (Steinbeck 106) letting Lennie die happily and ignorant to the gun barrel behind his

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men tells a story of two very different friends how both share the dream of one day buying their own farm. George and Lennie are both two workers that take temporary jobs at different ranches. That the new job that they get to meet Candy, the old “swamper” who cleans the bunkhouse; Slim, the “prince of the ranch”; Crooks, the African American stable hand. Then there is also Curley, the boss’s son and Curley’s wife, women that is desperate for the attention. Throughout the story, Steinbeck uses a lot of foreshadowing to prepare the reader what is about to occur. The plans of the characters going “askew,” the death of Curley’s wife, the loss of the farm dream, and the death of Lennie; are four clear examples of Steinbeck’s

Compare the episodes in which Candy’s dog and Lennie die. How has Steinbeck made these events effective for the reader?

“Well, you keep your place then, n*****. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny” (Steinbeck 81). In the novella, Of Mice and Men, the readers are following the life of Lennie and George, who are migrant workers during the Great Depression. Migrant workers, unlike Lennie and George, primarily travel alone, and they go from job to job. George and Lennie have been together since they were younger, as Lennie would come along with George while he worked, so they had become inseparable. Lennie got them kicked out of many jobs, but they landed a spot as a ranch hand bucking barley. Once they became acquainted with the farm, Lennie and George become friends with a man named Crooks, but before that, they are introduced to the ranch by Candy. As the story progresses, a theme of isolation, discrimination, and loneliness on Candy, Lennie, and Crooks is revealed.

During the entire novel, Candy’s desperation was shown as Steinbeck’s main example of Loneliness and its impact on humans. Isolated after the loss of his hand, he is unable to work with the other men and reduced to the role of the swamper which causes Candy to feel unimportant and disposable. Candy seems to have spurts of short term depression throughout the novel. For example when candy is forced to put his dog down, “Candy did not answer. The silence fell on the room again. It came out of the night

Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck. He is a famed novelist, Of Mice and Men was published in 1937. It tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two migrant workers who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities During the Great Depression which took place in the 1930’s. In this novella Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses the symbolism of Crooks, Candy and Curley’s Wife to contribute to the overall theme of loneliness

Candy confides in George and shares his regret of not killing his dog himself, “‘I oughtta shot the dog myself, George’” (61). Candy doesn’t want to shoot the dog, but later regrets not having the courage to do so, seeing it as it was his responsibility. This relates to George also because George learned from this that he should be the one to shoot Lennie. After fighting and crushing Curley’s hand, Lennie explains, “‘I didn’t wanta hurt him,’” (64) Lennie shows that he only defended himself. This is the same as when Lennie didn’t mean to kill Curley’s Wife. Pain appears in this dispassionate of others.

Isolation, Friendship, and the Dreams and plans for the future are some of the biggest themes in John Steinbeck's book, Of Mice and Men. The book is set in the 1930’s around the time of the Great Depression. During this time period, men were all looking for work to support their families or support themselves. Lennie Small and George Milton are the two main characters in this story. Most of the story takes place on a ranch in Soledad, California. Where we meet our other characters. Curley, the boss’ son. Slim, the jerkline skinner. Crooks is a crooked back man who is a stable hand. Candy, a ranch hand. Candy, an old ranch worker, who lost his hand in a farm accident. And finally Curley’s Wife, who is very flirty towards the men, especially Lennie. These characters all at some point go through some sort of Isolation, few have dreams for the future, and two have friendship for life.

Like Candy, Candy’s dog is faced with the ultimate punishment for his age and disability. Candy’s dog is old and said to smell bad and isn’t worth anything, the dog is shot because of its disabilities. This event foreshadows Lennie’s fate at the hand of George. Both of these characters’ euthanasia is rationalized to put them out of their misery and to prevent future suffering from happening due to their disabilities. Which is almost a mirror image of George and Lennie’s relationship where George has known Lennie for a considerable amount of time and George knows that he is completely responsible of Lennie’s well-being and when that well-being is in jeopardy George feels a moral obligation just like Candy did when he gave permission to Carlson to shoot his dog. The euthanizing of Candy’s dog is a “foreshadowing of what will happen with Lennie and George” (Thomas Scarseth) because both Candy and George’s relationship to those dependent to them end with them killing them in order to save them from suffering.

Even though he cannot communicate with his dog, Candy finds satisfaction in the care he has to give to it and company it provides him with. John Steinbeck has purposely conveyed this message of the necessity of companionship by contrasting characters like Cooks, who has a bitter personality, due to being neglected by the other men on the ranch, and Candy, who until the tragic death of his companion, the dog, seemed at least content with his life.

In the novel Of Mice And Men there is a man named Candy. Who Steinbeck describes him as “Old candy, the swamper, came in and went to his bunk, and behind him struggled his old dog” (43). Who feeds the chickens, with his long stride the job is at ease, and with a stub for a left hand. That's from a machine on the Tyler Ranch, but from this comes

The parallels between Lennie and George’s relationship and the relationship that their workmate, Candy had with his dog reaffirm the power dynamic between George and Lennie. In the novella, Candy must kill his dog because it is old and weak. Candy felt such extreme regret when it came time to kill his dog, that instead of doing