Plan B.

What does he show about society in America in the 1930s?

Steinbeck shows that if you were old or disabled you were seen as worthless and not given the attention that is needed. Candy is obviously disabled (his hand) which reveals a lot about the attitudes to disabled people in the 1930s, once he becomes completely incapable of any work he will be killed off, like his dog was. Steinbeck is trying to show that disabled people were not given the attention they needed in the 1930s. Curley takes his anger out on Candy as he is seen as a weak old man; Steinbeck wants to promote understanding to readers on what life was like for ordinary men on the ranch, it was a cruel and a hard life for the men. When the dog was shoot it was because he was old and worthless, the dog represents Candy as anything old and worthless gets rid of it in the end and Candy knows that his time is limited. Candy represents loneliness as he has no family and the only friend he had was his dog which got shot, a lot of the other ranch workers travel around alone so it also represents the loneliness of not having someone else’s company. In addition to this he seemed really excited about sharing in George and Lennie’s dream, he even offered to pay partly for the cottage, showing he wants escape from the world he is living and simply wanting to live with George and Lennie so he would be less lonely. Many of the people in America in the 20th century hoped for an ‘American dream’ to come true