Character Analysis: Of Mice And Men

Collin Gerger

Mrs. Lutrell

English 11

5 February 2018

Out with the Old in with the New

As a majority of people know and probably do, when something they have isn’t capable of working at its ideal performance, because of various reasons: outdated, broken parts, missing parts, etc, it gets discarded for a better version. Steinbeck depicts a character in this situation named Candy in his novella “Of Mice and Men.” Candy is an old handyman is labeled as a handicapped man due to an accident that resulted in the loss of his hand. While it may be seen as wrong to do this to a living organism, a human being no less, it was the way that Candy’s character was crafted that fit this situation. Candy’s character is crafted by Steinbeck in the text to demonstrate

Those who are old find even the simplest of tasks to be arduous, and realizing that they are not capable of completing these tasks, leads them to consider themselves inferior to others. An example of this comes from the quote, “They’ll can me purty soon. Jus’ as soon as I can’t swamp out no bunkhouses they’ll put me on the county” (Steinbeck 60). This was Candy’s way of thinking in his old age, making the tasks he needed to perform seem impossible. Candy was given the simplest task of “swampin” the bunkhouses, the easiest job that can be given to a man of his shape; however, he fears that one day the boss will deem him useless and proclaim that he has outlived his service and kick him off the ranch. Candy’s way of thinking is discouraging in this situation, having no family to support him if this were to happen, so he clings to his old, blind dog for reassurance and later to George and Lennie for a similar

So he seeks the support of George after his dog was shot by Carlson for being old and useless. He even goes to assist George and Lennie’s dream of getting their own place, in the hopes that he can come along with them in case he is still alive. “I’d make a will an’ leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, ‘cause I ain’t got no relatives nor nothing” (59). Candy takes the chance of tagging along with George and Lennie after George spoke to Lennie about their intentions to buy their own house and sustain themselves. Even though George doesn’t know much about Candy, he reluctantly agrees to let him tag along after Candy proposes to aid in their dream by providing them with money that he earned, regardless of the fact that Candy wouldn’t be much help in terms of farm