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

In the novella Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays Candy as fearful through his responses, subsequently having Candy worry about his future and the outcome of every event. By characterizing Candy in this way, Steinbeck can provide the looming failure and disappointment in the book. One way Steinbeck makes use of Candy’s fearful nature is to project his desperation to escape fate. When he hear’s George and Lennie discuss the farm, Candy adds, “They’ll can me purty soon. Jus’ as soon as I can’t swamp out no bunk houses they’ll put me on the county” (60). This shows Candy’s true fear to be his future on the land. He is growing old, has lost a hand, and never got to live a life he controlled. The hope this plan provides fuels Candy to serve use to someone like he never has, and shade

While in Crook’s room, Curley’s wife states her doubt that Candy would be able to reveal her threat, when Candy admits, “‘No…’ he agreed. ‘Nobody’d listen to us’” (81). The absence of a fight suggests that Candy no longer has any self confidence. He has done this to himself through his negative outlook on situations, a habit that naturally comes with worry. With this tendency, Steinbeck has a method to show flaw and weakness in reality, since these branch from fear. Finally, Candy is revealed, by Steinbeck, to be incapable of reflection and sentiment. After finding Curley’s wife dead, Candy blurts, “You an’ me can get that little place, can’t we, George?” (94). Among the barrage of questions, Candy hardly takes any time to feel sorry for the dead and immediately asks the fearful question, showing him to be worried constantly about what every situation means. Steinbeck prefers Candy to reveal what he does to inform readers that the dream is dead. The questions contradicting George’s analytical action prepares readers with a mindset to expect the tragedy in the