Scout originally did not have the skill to empathize, but thanks to Atticus, earns it. Had Scout not honed in on this skill, the end of the book, and the message would have been affected. Bob Ewell is a very unempathetic man and did not teach his children the skill. Bob Ewell is so unempathetic, that in fact in the novel, he was referred to as a low down skunk. His children particularly Mayella, have been affected by this lack of empathy, and have developed it as well.
Candy is lonely because of his old age although it is somewhat helped by the fact he has a dog but as we know, he is left high and dry after the residents of the bunkhouse choose to eradicate it for it was in pain and also smelling. Curleys wife throughout is negatively portrayed to the reader by the workers on the ranch and therefore is not left with anyone on her side, ultimately, making her lonely despite having a husband. The fact that Lennie is so incapable of getting along with people who he doesn’t already know well, this leaves him almost completely reliable on George in the book. Last but not least, Crooks is left without companionship on the ranch for various reasons. In the novel, the ranch is a huge symbolism of loneliness.
After he shoots the dog, he does not apologise to Candy and he even cleans his gun in full view of everyone, this shows that he is an insensitive character. Another example of his thoughtless behaviour is when he says, “Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?” Throughout the novel it becomes clear to the reader that he does not understand why George and Slim seemed to be upset, he sees Lennie’s death as practical and he does not feel any emotions about it – he just believed that Lennie had to be killed and he was. This shows that living on the ranch as a travelling worker was difficult as he had to take many temporary jobs wherever he could find them, he could not have time to build strong friendships with people which made him an aggressive character and made his loneliness turn into anger. Whit is the opposite to Carlson, he has a bubbly personality which explains why his name sounds like ‘wit’, as he is witty. He is not bitter about life on the ranch – although it was awful to have the life of a travelling worker because it caused him to have to constantly travel around and made him not have a dream or a
CANDY (OLD AND INFIRM) “lousy ol’ sheep” …Carlson’s attitude towards his dog (A70,P48): ‘I don’t know nothing that stinks as bad as an old dog. You gotta get himout…he ain’t no good to himself. Why’n’t you shoot him, Candy?’ …Candy’s words about his future (A88, P66): ‘You seen what they done to my dog tonight?…When they can me here…I won’t have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs.’ He believes he will share the same fate as his dog eventually, because he is old he is seen as 2useless2. In the novel old age is associated with lack of ability, even in modern times, we still believe old people to lack vital capabilities. However, there are some old people who are still fit and capable of working.
‘Mouth grinning’ is a metaphor] Slovenly life, my dog-dead youth [Slovenly: Stinky and messy. His youth is as dead as a dog. In other words he is old] I’ve lived this was long enough [again old] But when my old woman died, her soul [Refers to his wife] Went into that vacuum cleaner, and I can’t bear
Intolerance in Of Mice and Men Almost everyone in the world is intolerant of someone or something. The characters in the book lived on a ranch in the 1930’s. Every single one of them is either sexist or racist or just intolerant in general. When you meet some of the characters, they don’t let Crooks into the bunkroom, Curley is intolerant of men larger than him and Carlson Is mostly intolerant of Candy’s dog. In the novel Of Mice and Men, there is a farm hand named Crooks.
That could have been one of his roles In the novel to critise society because people are only known to travel together or don’t have anyone to travel with. Carlson is one of the most common people of the day as he keeps him self to him self and lacks a knowledge of companionship, friendship and love towards others. Carlson seems to be nothing more than meets the eye as we find out how insensitive he is towards others we find this out when he kills candy’s dog. All he seems to do was critise the dog ‘’stinks like hell, damn near blind’’ the words he says seem to be
Crooks brings into perspective the lonely experienced of all the characters in "Of Mice and Men" by saying on pg77 "Books ain't no good. A guy needs someone - to be near him. A
Crooks is being derogated even before being introduced into the novella. His personality is deemed as useless and therefore he is labeled as “the nigger”. Everybody else on the ranch is treated equally and called by their actual names, but the workers do not accept Crooks into their community, making him an outcast. After Curley’s wife leaves and everybody settles down into their bunk house, Lennie goes to the barnhouse in order to look and pet the puppies that Slim breeds. He eventually finds Crooks’ room and enters, to talk with Crooks.
Lennie was very isolated also from the ranch workers because he wasn't normal and acted very childish, this mustn't of been nice for Lennie and that is how the ranch is unpleasent for him. Carlson made Candy's life on the ranch very hard because he depised Candy's smelly old dog, in the book Carlson kills the dog because it was old and it stank but he never cared about how Candy felt about the dog he just cared about himself. Carlson killed the dog eventhough he knew how much Candy loved it, when Carlson suggested killing the dog “Candy looked for help from face to face” but nobody helped him. The reason why Candy couldn't stop Carlson from killing his dog was because he was a very brittle old man and was mainly over powered by people stronger than him. This event was very unpleasent for Candy.