How Does Steinbeck Survive The Fittest In Of Mice And Men

When people are not helpful or useful to a cause due to a disability like age, they are forced to move on and leave that place. But what if that place is society? In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, an old character named Candy is faced with the same problem. This event takes place during the Great Depression when people worked as migrant workers. Candy was also a migrant worker but due to old age, he now works as a cleaner. Since he is getting old and slow, he is becoming more and more useless now at his job at swamping the bunkhouses in which the workers live in. Because of recent events, it is becoming more apparent that he may not survive a lot longer. Steinbeck argues that the purpose of Candy’s weakness is to show that old age will result in not being able to positively help society and in return not survive through the use of the comments and actions of the ranch hands.

George and Lennie, two migrant workers and the main characters, have just reached the ranch and are introduced to the ranch hands and owners. One of the big guys named Carlson asks his boss, Slim, a tall lanky man, what happened to Slim’s dog. He said that he had to do something not exactly nice. Slim says, “ She slang her pups last night, nine of ‘em. I drowned four of ‘em right off. She couldn’t feed that many ... I kept the biggest,” (Steinbeck 35). Steinbeck tells us that only the ones best fit for living can actually live. Those who cannot help themselves will perish. Candy is the same way. He is too old to help himself and it will lead to his downfall because he is no fit to