Of Mice and Men
Prompt #8 · Of Mice and Men
Prompt Type: Scene Analysis
When Candy discovers Curley's Wife's body in the barn, he immediately recognizes that the dream farm is lost forever. Analyze how Steinbeck uses Candy's reaction in this scene to emphasize the fragility of hope in a world governed by harsh economic and social realities. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“—I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would.”
Chapter 5
Argument
This quote from the barn scene itself captures Candy's immediate recognition that the dream was always illusory, using George's confession to expose how economic reality makes hope inherently fragile—the shift from 'maybe we would' to 'never do her' crystallizes the dream's collapse at the moment of Curley's wife's death.
Quote 2
“You an’ me can get that little place, can’t we, George? You an’ me can go there an’ live nice, can’t we, George? Can’t we?”
Chapter 5
Argument
Candy's desperate, repetitive questioning in the barn scene reveals his refusal to accept the dream's death even as he recognizes it, using dialect and fragmented syntax to convey the psychological fragility of hope when confronted with harsh reality.
Quote 3
“They fell into a silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true.”
Chapter 3
Argument
This quote from earlier in the novel, when Candy first joins the dream, establishes the baseline of fragile belief ('never really believed') that makes the barn scene's collapse inevitable—the contrast between this moment of 'amazed' hope and Candy's later devastation emphasizes how quickly economic and social forces can destroy even tentative dreams.
Quote 4
“I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it.”
Chapter 4
Argument
Crooks's cynical observation from earlier in the novel provides crucial context for understanding Candy's devastation in the barn scene—his assertion that migrant workers 'never' achieve their dreams establishes the harsh economic reality that makes the dream farm's collapse inevitable, not exceptional.
Quote 5
Chapter 3
Argument
Candy's earlier regret about his dog's death from Chapter 3 directly parallels his reaction in the barn scene, as both moments reveal his powerlessness to protect what he loves—this establishes a pattern where Candy recognizes too late that he cannot control outcomes in a world governed by forces beyond his reach.