Candy tries to hold on to one of the few things that can keep him company his dog. However the rest of the bunkhouse mainly Carlson, thinks that the dog is “no good to you, Candy.”(Steinbeck, 44). His reasons are that he is old, he has no teeth and is stiff with rheumatism. This appears to be almost like a description of Candy not his dog. Steinbeck has used Candy’s dog to represent Candy. Carlson does not seem to understand that although the dog may be unable to work and is useless to Candy in a physical sense, the dog is still a piece of Candy’s life and can be considered as Candy’s only family as he mentions later in the book that he has no living relatives. This shows that the farm is his life. This is further enforced by the way Carlson reacts to Lenny’s death at the end of the book , “Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?”(Steinbeck, 107) Carlson doesn’t understand that although Lenny was a person who wasn’t particularly useful to anyone because of his disability, the two characters, George and Slim had an emotional connection with Lenny and therefore it would be understandable for them to be saddened by Lenny’s
Candy tries to hold on to one of the few things that can keep him company his dog. However the rest of the bunkhouse mainly Carlson, thinks that the dog is “no good to you, Candy.”(Steinbeck, 44). His reasons are that he is old, he has no teeth and is stiff with rheumatism. This appears to be almost like a description of Candy not his dog. Steinbeck has used Candy’s dog to represent Candy. Carlson does not seem to understand that although the dog may be unable to work and is useless to Candy in a physical sense, the dog is still a piece of Candy’s life and can be considered as Candy’s only family as he mentions later in the book that he has no living relatives. This shows that the farm is his life. This is further enforced by the way Carlson reacts to Lenny’s death at the end of the book , “Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?”(Steinbeck, 107) Carlson doesn’t understand that although Lenny was a person who wasn’t particularly useful to anyone because of his disability, the two characters, George and Slim had an emotional connection with Lenny and therefore it would be understandable for them to be saddened by Lenny’s