Candy's Dog In Of Mice And Men By John Steinbeck

“I ain’t much good with on’y one hand.”(59), says Candy the swamper from the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Candy is a disabled farmworker who can’t work on anything but cleaning, and so is not included in many of the other farmworkers’ activities. Candy’s situation proves that disabled people are treated poorly and unfairly because of the belief that they contribute less to society.
Candy’s dog is old and cannot herd sheep anymore, and Candy is missing his hand, so he cannot work well either. When the workers return from the fields, Carlson says “He ain’t no good to you...Why’n’t you shoot him, Candy?”(44). Carlson and the other workers want to shoot Candy’s dog because it smells horrible and is too old to herd sheep. Because Candy’s dog is so old, it cannot eat on its own and is dependent on others to survive, and this causes the workers to treat it unfairly. Furthermore, when Candy and Lennie explain to Crooks about their dream, he responds by saying “You’ll be a swamper here till they take you out in a box.”(75). Crooks is saying that because Candy is old and crippled, he will not be able to make his dream come true.

Therefore, when George speaks to Slim about how he and Lennie travel together, he says that he “Used to play jokes on ‘im ‘cause he was too dumb even to take care of ‘imself .”(40). George saw that Lennie could not defend himself and so took advantage of his disability. Because Lennie could not live like anybody else, and could not contribute to society as well as others, he was made fun of and treated poorly. Additionally, after Crooks tells Lennie the troubles of being African-American, Lennie shows that he isn’t paying attention, prompting Crooks to say “ ‘Jus talks, an’ you don’t understand nothing.”(71). Crooks is teasing Lennie about his mental disability. Crooks is proving to Lennie that he cannot work and live on his own and usually needs somebody to assist