How Does Steinbeck Present Candy In Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck has many intriguing characters. Of the characters in the novel, three of them stand out. Candy is an old man who works at the same ranch as George and Lennie, the main characters. He only has one hand and a smelly old dog. Crooks is the only African American man in Of Mice and Men. He, as all African Americans at the time, was not treated fairly by anyone on the ranch. And lastly Curley's wife, whose name is never mentioned, lives on the ranch with Curley and all the other boys. She is said to have an “eye” for many of the men on the ranch. All three of these characters share one characteristic; they all show signs of loneliness. First of all, Candy, a swamper on the ranch, was only kept on the property because he lost his hand in a ranch accident. His only real companion was his dog. His dog was just as old and crippled as he was. After

He was the only African-American on the ranch. He was forced to have his own room due to the color of his skin. He was very lonely but he didn't like to let anyone know, “You got no right to come in my room. This heres my room. Nobody got any right to be in here but me” (Steinbeck 68). This shows that he's been secluded and alone for his whole life that he's gotten so used to it that he started pushing people away. Crooks finally let Lennie in his room and when he did he scared Lennie into thinking George was not coming back. He was talking about himself when he scared Lennie into thinking he would be alone for the rest of his life. Crooks, when talking to Lennie, said, “S’pose you didn't have nobody. S’pose you couldn't go into the bunkhouse and play ‘cause you was black” (Steinbeck 72). This shows how lonely Crooks is because he has no one to turn to because of his skin color. The only person who would go into Crooks’ room was Lennie. Lennie did not care about the color of Crooks skin because all Lennie wanted was a