Minor Characters In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Candy and his dog provide a parallel to George and Lennie ‘dog lifted his head got… to his feet to follow’ Candy’s dog relies on Candy just a Lennie relies totally on George. George and Lennie have an elevated version of this relationship-stopping any hatred towards George when he shoots Lennie. In the same way despite logic and reason both pairs cling to each other because in the depression that’s makes them different. Steinbeck uses Candy’s dog to show Candy. Candy's dog is described as ‘ancient’ and ‘painful’ with nothing to look forward to except death.

This profound adjustment hints on the upcoming misfortune, Lennie's termination. The evidence that the death of Candy's dog and of Lennie are indistinguishable reflections for the way his murder was achieved. George shot him in the back of the head just like the old dog was. Candy said to George, "I ought to of shot that dog myself"(p.61) making George decide to kill Lennie himself to protect him from dying scared and panicked by a stranger. Killing him the way that Carlson did, for his sake, it was for the best so Lennie would feel no

Steinbeck has written ''Of Mice And Men '' about an adventure of George and Lennie trying to accomplish their American dream's during the Great Depression during the 1930's where thousands of people lost their jobs in the Wall Street Crash making them feel hopeless. George and Lennie come to work at a ranch near Soledad in California. There they meet fellow ranch mates and a woman called Curley's Wife. In this essay I will focus on how Curley's Wife's personality and actions change throughout the novella and who she affect her and other bunkmates throughout the novella. In addition to that I would be showing how Steinbeck creates tension by using Curleys Wife.

John Steinbeck, the author of “Of Mice and Men”, takes the time to listen to the employees of the ranch he works at and captivates a woman's story into his novella. Curley’s wife’s dream is to live a lavish life as a famous movie actress. Unfortunately she never got to because of the society she lives in. Marrying Curley does not increase her chances any greater either. Curley’s wife is known as his possession and he refuses to let her converse with anyone on the ranch and isolates her. Thus it is difficult for her to achieve anything she desires. Curley’s wife is a representation of how women during the time period were not allowed to succeed in anything more than what their husband wants for them.

On pages 63 to 65, Lennie struggles internally over his own unrealized strength. After Lennie crushed Curley’s hand, Lennie sat cowering in the corner. He’s scared that he did something wrong but he never meant to hurt Curley. He only fought back because George told him to. George and Slim assured George that it wasn’t his fault and that he didn’t do a bad thing. On pages 44 to 48, Candy undergoes a personal struggle. When Carlson tells him that his dog is old and suffering and should be put down, Candy does not want to give up his dog. After Slim agreed that Candy’s dog should be put down on page 45, “Candy looked helplessly at him, for Slim’s opinions were law.” After being defeated by Carlson’s reasonable argument, Candy finally forces himself to give up his dog, knowing that he won’t have to suffer any more.

In the novella Of Mice and Men both Lennie and Candy’s dog dies. The dog was killed by Carlson with a bullet in the back of his head with Carlson’s Luger pistol. Carlson convinced Candy to kill him because the dog was useless to itself and he wouldn’t hurt it while killing it as he said on page 72, “The way I’d shoot him, he wouldn’t feel nothing.” Lennie was killed by George by the Salinas River. George killed Lennie because Curly was going to kill Lennie for killing his wife and I guess thought he should do it. Both Candy’s dog and Lennie was killed by a shot

The fact that Curley’s wife hates her life makes a huge contrast between her bad life and the possibilities associated with the American Dream. This contrast is shown in the line “Coulda’ been in the movies an’ had nice clothes.”(Steinbeck,89) Curley’s wife is presents the epitome of a person striving for the American Dream. She often says things like “I coulda made something of myself….maybe I will yet.”(Steinbeck,88) By Steinbeck using this character, he intended to show the difference between a “fake” yearning for the dream and a true whole-hearted desire for it. Curley’s wife would give anything to be successful in the future. This view is also seen by Kevin Attell who said “ To be sure, it is about dreaming of the future…”(Attell) The opinion from this critic show that this opinion or view is also seen by others who read this book.

In John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife was seen more as an object than a person which lead to problems on the farm. Curley’s wife was an asset in the novella in bringing across the idea of the worth of an individual. Overall, she was important to the story in her own special way. The men on the ranch saw Curley’s wife as a “tart” or “tramp” that would always give them the eye.

Like Candy, Candy’s dog is faced with the ultimate punishment for his age and disability. Candy’s dog is old and said to smell bad and isn’t worth anything, the dog is shot because of its disabilities. This event foreshadows Lennie’s fate at the hand of George. Both of these characters’ euthanasia is rationalized to put them out of their misery and to prevent future suffering from happening due to their disabilities. Which is almost a mirror image of George and Lennie’s relationship where George has known Lennie for a considerable amount of time and George knows that he is completely responsible of Lennie’s well-being and when that well-being is in jeopardy George feels a moral obligation just like Candy did when he gave permission to Carlson to shoot his dog. The euthanizing of Candy’s dog is a “foreshadowing of what will happen with Lennie and George” (Thomas Scarseth) because both Candy and George’s relationship to those dependent to them end with them killing them in order to save them from suffering.

Throughout most of the book Curley’s wife strikes us as a compelling and riveting character as we initially see her as a wicked character till those few seconds before she dies where you think, hey she might not be so bad after all. In the novel ‘of Of mice Mice and men’ Men’ Curley’s wife’s image is portrayed as a very sexual, flirtatious, cheeky and desperate. Steinbeck uses specific words, sentences and techniques to create the image of Curley’s wife as one that is very contrasting.

The killing of Candy's dog deepened his loneliness, just as the killing of Lennie totally destroyed George. Since the dog was Candy's best friend, its death was drastic to him. Candy was rejected by the society because he was old and had only one arm. He was useless to it; therefore they did not care about his feelings. Also, since he was weak no one cared about him and he could not do anything about it. A stronger person like Slim had the respect of everyone and this forced the society to listen to them. Candy was deeply saddened by this, and this was shown when he said "You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They say he wasn't no good to himself nor nobody else."(Pg.60). Then he said "When they can me here I wished somebody'd shoot me. But they won't do anything like that. I won't have no place to go an' I can't get no more jobs."(Pg.60). This showed that Candy was hopeless and had no place to go. Without his dog, he was now alone.

Curley’s Wife is one of the many who had a dream she could not achieve because she is a woman. Steinbeck writes, “Well I ain’t told you this to nobody before. Maybe i ought’n to. I don't like Curley. He ain't a nice fella. And because she had confided in him she moved closer to Lennie and sat beside him. Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes- all them nice clothes like they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers took of me.” (89). This was Curley’s Wife’s dream, but since she was a women in the 1920s she had to give it up because it was not realistic. Instead she had to marry Curley because she wanted to get away from her mother who she thinks ruined her chance of being a famous actress. She does not even like Curley at all but that is just what she needed to do at that time. Not only that Steinbeck writes, “He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon’s he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it.” (89). This shows that, Curley’s Wife was even a good actress and maybe she could have achieved her ‘american dream’, but again she is a woman and it is not possible for

The American dream is the idea that success is available to all regardless of family background or social status. It is achieved through hard work, talent, and ambition. However, in The Mice of Men, the American dream is not possible. Steinbeck shows this through the actions of Curley’s wife as she represents women of that time. Curley’s wife is a very lonely person and not very hard working. She even antagonizes the men on the ranch because she thinks she can get away with it, which shows just how weak she is. According to Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, the American dream is not possible and this is demonstrated through his use of the character Curley’s wife.

Both Lennie and Candy’s dog are seen as weak and useless. This is especially true for Candy’s dog-nobody, not even Candy, can seem to find a use for

The parallels between Lennie and George’s relationship and the relationship that their workmate, Candy had with his dog reaffirm the power dynamic between George and Lennie. In the novella, Candy must kill his dog because it is old and weak. Candy felt such extreme regret when it came time to kill his dog, that instead of doing