Why I think Candy was added by John Steinbeck to his book
Of Mice and Men
There are many reasons why John Steinbeck added Candy to his book Of Mice and Men. The first and foremost reason, which may not be so obvious at first, is that Candy is in fact the narrator. He is the narrator in a way because he is the one telling George and Lennie about the ranch. Candy describes to them the people, their personalities and who to stay away from.
When Candy is first introduced, he is called the ‘old swamper’. We only discover his name after a while. The first person Candy talks about is Crooks, the ‘nigger’ stable. From this you can make out that the others on the ranch are prejudice towards the stable buck, ‘ Ya see the stable buck’s a nigger,’ Crooks is clearly disadvantaged due to his skin colour. When the boss is finished talking to Lennie and George, George tells Lennie off for talking. As Lennie is being told off, George looked outside and found Candy standing there, thinking Candy was eavesdropping, George repeatedly asks Candy why he was standing out side, ‘…and peered out. “Say, what the hell you doin’ listenin’?’ ‘“I wasn’t listenin’. I was jus’ standin’ in the shade a minute scratchin’ my dog.”’ Candy says that guys on ranches don’t listen into things they shouldn’t, ‘ “A guy on a ranch don’t never listen nor he don’t ast no questions.”’ Candy tells George about Curley and to keep Lennie away from him, ‘” Curley’s like a lot of little guys. Kind of like he’s made at em’ because he ain’t a big guy. You seen little guys like that, ain’t you? Always scrappy?”’ He tells George to not tell Curley that he was talking about him because he would get ‘sloughed’ by Curley and Curley won’t get fired because he is the boss’ son. ‘“Don’t Curley I said none of this. He’d slough me. He just don’t give a damn. Won’t ever get canned ‘cause his old man’s the boss”’