candy

Candy feels old at useless. This is a world that lacks sentimentality. Candy lost his hand in an accident. Now he is a swamper sweeping out the bunkhouses. He knows that he is on borrowed time at the ranch. The elderly serve no pragmatic purpose on a working ranch during the great depression. Candy laments that he hopes for the same fate as his dog.

"You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn't no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody'd shoot me..."