Hadlee Creech Mrs. Lutrell 30 January, 2018 In John SteinBeck 's classic novela “Of Mice and Men” he bestows upon an elderly man a loss of hope for life. The elderly and the handicap are seen useless to themselves and to society; SteinBeck crafted Candy’s character to demonstrate how corrupt society dehumanizes all hope of the elderly and the handicap living the American Dream. Our society shows senior citizens, especially useless senior citizens, are expendable; Society only wants you when you’re young. It doesn’t matter if you contributed a lot when you were young because once you get old, you’re useless. SteinBeck introduces two characters, one character named candy with his dog and the other character named Carlson who brings up the …show more content…
All the men were in the bunkhouse with Candy when Carlson brought up the idea to put Candy’s dog out of its “misery”. “At last Carlson said, “If you want me to I’ll put the old devil out of his misery right now and get it over with. Ain’t nothing left for him. (47). Candy’s dog who was once an spectacular sheep herder but is now toothless, horrible smelling and brittle from age supports Candy’s fears. Candy’s past accomplishments and current emotional involvement to his dog matter very little as Carlson makes clear when he strongly insisted Candy let him put the dog out of its misery. In such a society Candy’s dog represents an unpalatable reminder of the fate that awaits anyone who outlives their usefulness. For a short time, his dream of living out his days with George and Lennie on the farm they dream of buying distracts Candy from his grim reality. He considers the couple acres of land they explain was worthy of his hard earned life long savings, which bespeaks his desperate need to believe there is a kinder world than the one in which he lives. LIke George, Candy grips to the idea of having the amount of freedom to take or set aside work as he