The Brotherhood of Man

The Brotherhood of Man

Cameron Franklin Folk
ENG 102-702
2/12/10
Essay #1 Literary Analysis
Words= 1815
The relationship between George and Lennie plays a key role in the plot of the story. Since the setting is during the hard economic times of the dust bowl work is hard to find, and when it’s found it is usually hard work with low pay. This leads to the conclusion that the life of a wandering ranch hand must be very sad and lonely. Even though George often gets fed up by Lennie’s lack of mental capacity just having someone there to confide in makes George happy. One does not realize the importance of their brotherhood until the other characters of the story are introduced, such as Candy. He is an old member of the ranch having suffered from an accident that caused him to lose his hand, the boss keeps him around out of pity. Candy has a very old, stinky, toothless dog who was once a strong sheep herder. This was Candy’s only friend, he raised the dog since it was first born and had a very close relationship with him. Near the beginning of the story another one of the ranch hands, Carson had enough of the dog’s smell and thought of him as justa useless old mutt. After much persuasion Carson managed to talk Candy into letting him put the dog out of his misery. This gives the reader a sense of the way things were back then. That if something outlives its use, something else will put it out of its misery. Candy is a very important character because like his dog he is getting older and starting to feel like he will not be needed on the ranch anymore. Later in the story Candy overhears George and Lennie talking about their farm, he offers his whole life savings toward helping buy the land. During this story the farm seems to represent a garden of Eden, a paradise where man does not have to worry about anything anymore and live in peace.
The friendship between George and Lennie was something that all the other ranch hands were envious of. Lennie was an extremely hard worker;...

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