Of Mice And Men Research Paper

Candy Essay The novella called Of Mice and Men exposes the harsh reality of living in 1930s America. In the 1930s, America was a highly prejudiced society. Steinbeck uses the character Candy to demonstrate how society at this time was casually racist, sexist and ableist. Candy also shows the key theme of loneliness throughout the novella. During the 1930s, America was prejudiced against people with physical disabilities and the older generation. As a result of the Great Depression, people had very few government schemes that could help those that were unable to work. Candy is a victim of this prejudice. He is described as the “old swamper” which suggests he is of low status on the ranch due to his age, a swamper is a cleaner and had very little respect

Later, Candy states “When they can me here I wish somebody’d shoot me”. This suggests that, like his dog, which is no longer useful, it would be better for him to die as society will regret him due to disability and age. Steinbeck reveals the 1930s American sexism through the character of Candy. Candy uses the most derogatory language to describe Curley’s wife, the only female on the ranch. He is shown to gossip to the two men describing his opinionated views on each character, this tells us that Candy is an observant man and likes to gossip to his peers for entertainment. George and Lennie’s first impression of Curley’s wife is that she is flirtatious, this is based on Candy referring to her as “she got the eye”. Although this is proven to be true, it is unlikely that Candy has had a full conversation with Curley’s wife and just assumed her persona. Similarly, in part 2 he also nicknames her “Tart”, this gives the reader the impression that she is incongruous. This tells us that Steinbeck uses Candy to tell the reader about each character