Timeline for The term “handy” in “Of Mice and Men”
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
3 events
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| Jul 5, 2018 at 17:24 | comment | added | user205876 | @JanusBahsJacquet The whole point of my answer is that Steinbeck wrote in a very direct style, so that handy has its ordinary meaning. That said, the choice of handy in this passage lets Steinbeck convey more than the simple thought that Curley was a competent fighter. | |
| Jul 5, 2018 at 8:06 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | I highly doubt this is correct. “Handy [with his fists]” is hardly obscure; it’s a perfectly commonplace, colloquial phrase that any author could use, confident that the reader will understand it, even if truncated as here. I think your interpretation to a much greater degree involves fitting a square meaning into a round usage and would require the reader to take some fairly obscure leaps. | |
| Jul 4, 2018 at 15:42 | history | answered | user205876 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |