Character Sketch: Candy

One of the main characters of the story, Candy, is an elderly man who works as the swamper on the ranch, where he is constantly harrassed by his co-workers for his lack of one of his hands and his ownership of an equally old dog. Candy faces a dilemma when one of the ranch hands convinces him that taking the life of his dog would be better for the dog, since it was supposedly suffering. The loss of his dog leaves Candy vulnerable and made him want to get off the ranch. When Candy overhears George discussing his dream ranch, he offers to invest in the purchase of the land, and to leave all of his belongings to George when he dies. His hopes are crushed when, after Lennie has killed Curley's wife, George admits that there really was no ranch.

"I got hurt four years ago. They'll can me purty soon. Jus' as soon as I can't swamp out no bunk houses they'll put me on the county."(p.66)