How Steinbeck creates sympathy for Candy in Of Mice and Men

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

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

Candy is the janitor on the farm. His best friend is an old dog he got when he started working on the farm. Steinbeck explains, “A shot sounded in the distance.” (Steinbeck 49). They guys were in the bunk and Carlson- one of the men who works on the farm, offers to shoot the dog to put him out of his misery. When they hear the dog shot Candy is all alone. This was his best friend of all times. Candy explains, “I'd make a will an leave my share to you guys in case…. I ain't got I relatives nor nothing…” (Steinbeck 59). He said this because he was trying to escape loneliness. When his best friend was killed he needed to find a way to escape it do trying to go with George and Lennie to their farm after they raised enough money it would keep them all

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.

<br> <br>George's relationship with Lennie has made him selfless; his 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.

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.

Ranch Discrimination “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.

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 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.

Through the narrative convention of foreshadowing, Steinbeck uses the execution of Candy’s dog to predict what will occur to Candy himself, once his ability to work diminishes completely. Candy’s dog is a metaphor of himself. The dog represents the brutality of life on the land and the inevitability of becoming useless.

John Ernst Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902. He worked as a farm labourer on ranches from 1919 to 1926. This experience has influenced the setting of the novella Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck met someone like Lennie Small which obviously provided Lennie’s character. I am going to compare the events in which Candy’s dog and Lennie die in the novella. I will also talk about how John Steinbeck made the events effective for the reader. There are several themes in the novella Of Mice and Men. These are loyalty, friendship, loneliness and isolation, dreams of something

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

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.

Through his characters, John Steinbeck, author of Of Mice and Men, illustrates the way people endure isolation, and the despondency that is found in those lacking a purpose which was commonplace during the Great Depression. One such character is Crooks, who is different from the other ranch hands because he is an African American, and as such, he is forced to live alone. He has a crooked, misshapen spine, which makes him even further of an outcast. He is lonely, and he has shielded himself from the other farmhands in an armor of pessimism and abjection, when in all actuality, he wants to talk to the other workers rather than reading books alone in his room. He feels that “A guy needs somebody to be near him. . . A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody” (72). In this way, Crooks is insinuating his own need for company, and when Lennie and Candy show up in his room, “It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger” (75).

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