carlson Flashcards
quote to suggest Carlson is insensitive
“i can smell that dog a mile away”
Carlson is DISMISSIVE and HEARTLESS
“Why’nt you get Candy to shoot his old dog and give him one of the pups to raise up?”
-unable to understand emotional connection
Carlson can’t comprehend sadness
“Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?”
-can’t comprehend sadness of human death
CONTEXT: Are we cruel by birth or is it our surroundings?
Desperate times lead to only needing to survive. It was normal to be DISMISSIVE of weaker people
Carlson is used to savagery as he was possibly a WW1 VETERAN
Carlson is only an individual example of the savagery seen throught human history
“Luger pistol”
-allusion to WW1 and Nazi Germany as the gun was made by Germans as a weapon of choice
Steinbeck wrote this during the time of the Holocaust
Carlson is practical
“You ain’t bein kind to him keepin’ him alive”
-not cruel but practical
Carlson is not motivated by the SADISTIC desire to cause pain, but more practicality
sadistic - (deriving pleasure from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others.)
“If you was to take him out and shoot him right in the back of the head… he’d never know what hit him”
- the execution is merciful like Lennie’s
CONTEXT: why did people have to be practical?
Social Darwinism meant there was no room for compassion and people had to be practical and the struggles of the weakest were considered the natural order of things
Carlson is respected
“Carl’s right, Candy”
-Slim, as respected man, agrees with Carlson
Carlson maintains dominance over candy
Deals with the conflict with violence
“you comes for me, an ‘ill kick your God damn head off”
Carlson is MYSOGYNISTIC
“whyn’t you tell her to stay the hell home where she belongs?”
-views Curley as a faliure for not controling his wife
why does Carlson view Curley as a faliure for not controling his wife?
Women were considered ‘the weaker sex’ so faliure to control one’s wife was seen as a faliure of the husband
