The Contribution That Carlson and Candy Make To Of Mice And Men
Of Mice and Men contains many disabled people including Carlson and Candy who are both disabled themselves, however in different ways; firstly, Candy has only one hand and is in one of the lower societies especially since he is an old swamper (cleaner), p.69 “Old Candy, the swamper”. In addition, even though it is not mentioned in the book, there are a few hints to prove Carlson is emotionally disabled.
Carlson’s emotional disability is shown on occasions such as at the end of the book where the group find Curley’s wife’s corpse and Carlson offers his luger (gun) to shoot Lennie, p.133 “I’ll get my luger”, therefore showing he has no emotion towards Lennie or George as well as not understanding relationships and the effect death can have. Another scenario where Carlson didn’t understand relationships or death was when he went to shoot Candy’s dog and Slim had to tell him to p.75“take a shovel” meaning Carlson should bury Candy’s dog in respect, this shows that Carlson did not recognize the effect of the loss of the dog as a companion to Candy. Slim is different and has emotion such as at the end of the book when Slim comforts George. However, Carlson doesn’t understand why George is so upset and says “Now, what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?” on p.149