Candy OMAN

Intro

• microcosm for the merciless life the elderly had to endure during the 1930s

• Hardship - wall street crash and 15 mill unemployed

• Candy’s old age deemed him ‘useless’ and hence marginalised him

• suffers from fear of being canned, loneliness and futile American Dream

Fear of getting canned

• “Old swamper” and “stick like wrist” - unable to complete demanding physical labour

• Disadvantage as physical labour great demand in companies like Civilian Conservation crops primarily hired men for physical labour

• His inability to work makes him vulnerable as he fear getting ‘canned”

• “If they can me here, i shi somebody’d shoot me” - desperation in maintaining place as like many would prefer death over unemployment

“I wisht somebody’d shoot me if i was an old cripple”

• Slim supports the ideal

• While refers to a dog, alludes to Candy

• Fear derived from the fact that there was no Jobseeker’s allowance, nor pension system

• so if didn’t have relatives would die of starvation

Loneliness

• Low position on hierarchy = lonely

• “they left all the weak ones” - deserted while other at the cathouse

• Hostility forced by GD - unemployment 25% and high job competition

…Bond with dog

• symbolises the need for companionship

• “I had him for so long” - emotional attachment

• Carlson says “he’s no good” to himself, Candy “looked for support from face to face”

• emotional distance, while knows personally they refuse to offer support and understanding

Loneliness paragraph conclusion

• His situation mirrors neglect to marginalised and elderly

• While bond with dog symbolises fragile connection in the world with little room for vulnerability and companionship

• Through Candy Steinbeck critiques society where isolation is a consequence of economic hardship

American Dream

• Despite marginalisation Candy clings onto the belief of AD

• When he hears about G and L plan of living offa fatta the land proposes his savings to “let him in”

• low wages and poor conditions during G.D. and Dust Bowl worsening wages = drop in food prices

• hence landownership was a popular dream among itinerant workers as chance of escaping from the cycle of labour and be independent

American dream but…

• Curley’s wife and Lennie’s death disturb the dream

• mirror harsh reality

• fallacy of AD as failed to accommodate marginalised and especially elderly

Conclusion

• Overall, tragic fate alludes to darwin’s axiom of survival of the fittest

• Weak and vulnerable swamper never seemed to have a chance for a bright future

• Steinbeck uses him to critique the world dominated by survival, economic hardship and cruelty