Of Mice and Men Characters Essay

In the novel, Candy and Curley’s wife play a large part of the ideas that Steinbeck wants to convey through â€Å"Of Mice and Men†. Steinbeck shows this via the events and treatments that these two characters undergo. Their speech and actions also indicate major themes in the world they were in and how desperate the era was. Candy presents an element on the sadness in the novel; he’s a unfortunate man who’s passed his expiry date. He’s been involved in an accident and lost his arm and by this, he has been reduced to the swamper of the rank- a very low status job. Steinbeck may specifically choose this job for candy as a swamper (a cleaner) tends to be a job that woman generally work as and in this job, they often gossip a lot like Candy does. He does this as it is the only pleasure that he can experience in his sad rotting life. This paints the portrait of how sad Candy’s background may be and soon this is elaborated on even more in future events. In the middle section of the book, we see how Candy is bullied by Carlson into having his best friend- his dog put down. We know that Candy is very close to his dog as Steinbeck actually chooses to describe the dog very similarly to Candy. They are both old, physically impaired and get described generally as a liability. Steinbeck chooses to describe the dog as â€Å"ancient† which produces strong imagery of a dog being similar to an old antique. Although it may possess positive connotations, it is obvious due to Carlson’s reaction that the dog is old, dirty and has no purpose anymore. Soon after as Carlson enforces the idea, Candy desperately tries to dismiss it. It states how he looked â€Å"helplessly† which shows how reluctant he is but knows there is no other possible outcome. Carlson even shows utter disrespect to his dog by pointing at it with his â€Å"toe†. By using his tower, he suggests that the dog is on par with the lowliest part of his body and doesn’t require the effort to use his hands. Nevertheless, Candy shows no aggression to this outrageous act and concedes to Carlson’s insensitive actions. Steinbeck may choose these chain of events to show how a cruel world the characters and people had to live in. It really puts forward survival of the fittest and shows how depressingly cheap life is since people can easily walk over you when you’re unable to fight for yourself. Even after all the abuse he has received, Candy is still able to show kindness to others. At the point where Candy overhears George’s dream, he slowly asks whether he can join them. We know that he isn’t greedy at this point since he repeatedly mentions how he would willingly try his best with jobs such as â€Å"cook† or â€Å"hoe† despite he â€Å"ain’t much good.† He also says how he is willing to give up all his money he received when he â€Å"los'† his â€Å"hand† and this just shows how he is desperately giving all he has to help them only for a little in return. Steinbeck emphasises how emotionally willing Candy is that he would trade in the compensation for something irreplaceable to him for the benefit of others. This makes the reader sympathize with Candy and understand how strong dreams are in life; how they give people hope, the strength to keep living and the strength to be a nice person again. Curley’s wife on the other hand is the complete opposite. Her story plays a large part in the novel as it shows how dreams can crush people’s hope as easily and they give people hope. Throughout the novel, we have always seen Curley’s wife as the problem. She is described as â€Å"poison† and â€Å"jailbait† by George which initially makes readers dislike her. We feel that she can cause the downfall of our newly made friend’s dreams so she is instantly given a hostility status by Steinbeck. However, he may deliberately do this to create a larger impact when we learn why she may possibly act the way she does. At earlier stages of the novel, we learn how Curley’s wife loves and seeks attention. Steinbeck describes how she was â€Å"standing† at the doorway blocking off the â€Å"sunshine in the doorway† deliberately. This implies that she wants the men in the bunkhouse to look up due to the sudden change as she purposefully blocks the light off so that they would do so. It also describes how she was â€Å"heavily made up† that she was making a large effort to attract attention of the men. The word â€Å"heavily† also has connotations that she was trying to hard to an extent where it had negative effects on her. This may also symbolize her character through physical features- that her personality has been corrupted and turned ugly. In the final stages of the book, we learn what has driven Curley’s wife to act in this aggressive way. Although she speaks to groups of men with hostility, when its one on one, it runs a lot more smoothly and she seems like she enjoys herself. This has a large contract since there is juxtaposition between section 4 and 5. We see her nasty side where she mock George, Lennie and Candy’s dream calling it â€Å"baloney† and â€Å"scoffs at it† yet even herself who has been crushed by her own dream may â€Å"secretly believe†. This shows that beneath this angry cover of hers, may be a vulnerable person who only feels the bitterness and jealousy of other’s happiness hinted by the phrase â€Å"secretly believe†. Steinbeck states this about the cowboy magazines to suggest what type of sad life people live in however, within dreams still lies hope but people are afraid to admit to the hope since they are scared of the criticism others show. This idea is developed implicitly mainly by the word â€Å"secret†. Through this attitude, people have become cynical and cold over the time which is what Steinbeck may want to show us. Curley’s wife shares with Lennie her dream in section 5. The fact that she has never told anyone (which she states herself) shows how underneath all the bitterness she has experienced, the memory of the dream she once had (or partially may still have) changes her to be kind and share her deepest secrets with a stranger. On the other hand, Lennie may be an exception since he is â€Å"nuts† implying that he may be able to keep this secret. Furthermore, we learn how Curley’s wife left home since she had a hunch that her mother â€Å"stole† her letters. The word â€Å"stole† in this context possesses quite negative connotations since Curley’s wife directly accuses her own mother for betraying her. However, this was most likely an excuse and lie to herself since she couldn’t bear the reality of having her dream crushed by the stranger who created it. This yet again emphasises how strong dreams were at this time which broke lives altogether. Compare how female speakers are presented in ‘Havisham’ by Carol Ann Duffy and one poem from the Pre-1914 Poetry Bank. The two female speakers in â€Å"Havisham† and â€Å"The laboratory† both are presented as rather mentally unstable people. They both have experienced rejection from a man and feel belittled or embarrassed by this. However, their reactions and response to this rejection differ to a huge extent. The speaker in â€Å"Havisham† is shown to have rotted away being devoured by her bitterness whereas the speaker in â€Å"Lab† seemed to be slightly more insane driven by her jealous feelings of insecurity to try and kill someone. The bitterness from the character in â€Å"Havisham† is clear from the start. She describes the man who left her as a â€Å"beloved sweetheart bastard†. This use of oxymoron shows several possible connotations. By putting two very opposite words together- one stating strong affection and one stating utter most hate, the idea that beneath the hate she holds against him lies love for him. Elaborating on this may suggest how she may hate him as she can’t have him or even because she actually still loves him deep inside. Above all, this suggests how she can’t seem to let go of him and move on which presents her mental state to the readers. Likewise in â€Å"Lab†, we understand the feelings of the speaker through clever use of language. For instance, Robert Browning chooses to say â€Å"devil’s smithy†. Devil automatically conjures the sense of evil or corruptness whereas a smithy is somewhere where things are made such as weapons (blacksmith). These combined imply that a creation of evil with malicious intent is occurring in the poem. Soon after we discover that the protagonist has experienced similar rejection to that of â€Å"Havisham†. â€Å"He is with her† suggests that the man he wants is with another woman. By referring to them as â€Å"he† and â€Å"her†, it creates an enigmatic feeling or even that their names are insignificant and it is purely the concept that she has been left for a woman who is better than her which causes her rage. We know that she is also jealous when the speaker wishes for the other woman â€Å"breast and her arms and her hands† to â€Å"drop dead†. She specifically chooses these body parts implying that these are the parts which the other women best her at and this is why she hates them. In â€Å"Havisham†, the speakers reaction to this rejection was simply to rot with it burning them. She continues to feel this bitterness as suggested with the word â€Å"Spinster†. This word possesses a harsh consonance sound as if she spits it out with such disgust. It is also a one word sentence which emphasises it and also makes it out to be some what of an insult. The word â€Å"stink and remember† following afterwards reinforces this as if she’s being driven crazy by the thought of people calling her a â€Å"spinster†. Thus all she does for the rest of her days is rot in her hate. We get the impression that she’s been doing this for years since she describes how her â€Å"dress yellowing†- yellowing suggesting dirtying from the years it’s been on her. On the otherhand, the speaker is â€Å"Lab† is made out to be more malicious than having thoughts of hate. As she makes the poison, she describes the creation with very vivid verbal details. â€Å"Grind away, moisten and mash up† create strong imagery and each of the verbs hold strong care in creating something. By suggesting this care and importance that has gone into the poison, it seems that she really relishes the creation. And finally as she fantasises about how delicious the event would be, she thinks about how the â€Å"dying face† would be â€Å"branded† into the male characters mind. She wants to mentally scar him with the horrendous image possibly for punishment or to make him see how ugly the other woman is when she becomes â€Å"shrivelled† suggesting how her face would become contorted with agony. As she describes this with such detail and precision, the poet presents to us how malicious and bitter the speaker is. A thus through use of language and theme, the poets have successfully produces a very clear image of the bitter, hate filled speakers and how they’ve become this way and even how they have dealt with this. The speaker in â€Å"Havisham† rotting and â€Å"yellowing† opposed to the â€Å"minion† in â€Å"Lab† who relishes in the thought of killing and branding someone with the scarring image of death.