Role Of Physical Impairments In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men
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“[Candy] said miserably, “you see what they done to my dog tonight? They say he wasn’t no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht sombody’d shoot me. But they won’t do nothing like that. I won’t have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs.” (Steinbeck 60). Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, is about two men working on a ranch in California around the 1930’s. During this time, impairments were treated differently from how they would be treated now. These physical impairments influence the characters' roles in the novel. Some of these characters that have these physical impairments are Candy and Crooks. One of the many characters with an impairment is Candy.Candy has lost his right arm while working on…show more content… In the ranch life, you’re supposed to be fit and young however Candy is neither. Candy’s age is an impairment during this time because either he’s going to die on the ranch or the boss with through him out on the road. Another example of this impairment is seen can be found in Chapter 4 when Crooks exclaimed “You'll be a swamper here till they take you out in a box.” (Steinbeck 76) Crooks says this because he knows that because of Candy’s impairment that he might not last long on the ranch. A final instance when this impairment is seen is when Candy talks about how his dog was killed just because he was old and smelly and couldn’t work anymore. He was comparing himself to his dog because he thinks when he’s too old to work on the ranch hat they’ll just kick him out and no one would want to hire him to work for them because of his age. Even though he’s old and has one hand, Candy isn’t the only one with two physical impairments at the…show more content… That’s why his nickname is Crooks. Crooks obtained his impairments when a horse kicked him in the back. Crooks thinks that because of his impairment, hes not as important as everybody else and nobody really cares about his words. “This is just a nigger talkin’, an’ a busted-back nigger. So it don’t mean nothing, see?” (Steinbeck 71) Another example of when this impairment is seen can be found in Chapter 4 when he pulled out his shirt on his back, poured a little, liniment into his pink palm and, reaching around, he, fell slowly to rubbing his back. Crooks impairment makes him take care of himself more. A final instance when this impairment is seen is when Candy was talking about what happened at Christmas. He said “If he coulda used his feet, Smitty says he woulda killed the nigger. The guys said on account of the nigger's got a crooked back, Smitty can't use his feet”. If Crooks didn’t have a crooked back, he could of died that Christmas from fighting a guy named Smitty. John Steinbeck included many types of impairments in his novella Of Mice and Men such as mental impairments and physical