Candy of Mice and Men

Kody Knoll
English ll
Courtney 4th
May 10, 2013
“The Swamper” “You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn’t no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs’’(Steinbeck 60). In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, Lennie and George are very close friends and George looks out for the mentally handicapped Lennie. Lennie is fascinated with soft things, but tends to hurt them on accident. George and Lennie share a dream of living off the land. That dream suddenly goes away when Lennie kills Curley’s wife. Through changes of the character, Candy, Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to predict the end of the book, and he and his dog are like the companionship of George and Lennie. Candy is very old and has a extremely old smelly suffering dog. “I aint much good with only one hand. I lost my right hand here ont the ranch. That’s why they gave me a job swampin’’ (Steinbeck 59). The boss has him do a job that does not need to be done, so that candy will feel useful to have around. Since he lost his hand in an accident he has to do a gob swampin. “I ought to shoot that dog myself, George, I shouldn’t let no stranger shoot my dog”(Steinbeck 61). That’s a very important quote, because it foreshadows when George shoots Lennie to save him from the harm that the other guys on the ranch would do. “I’d make a will an’ leave my share with you guys in case I kick off, ‘cause I ain’t got no relatives nor nothing” “maybe we could do her right now”(Steinbeck 59).Candy finally finds a little hope to be less lonely and to have a good friend. He really wants to share George and Lennie’s dream to feel like a family and feel more at home. Throughout the story Candy demonstrates foreshadowing in a big way, some in witch foreshadow the tragedy at the end of the book. Candy reminds me of Billy, a good friend of mine. Billy loves his dogs and would do anything for them, but his dog developed cancer in his tongue and was in serious pain. Billy put him down because he knew that was the best thing for the dog.