Following Like a Steer

" Tell me, Robert. Why do you follow Brett around like a poor bloody steer? Don't you know you're not wanted?" - Mike (pg. 146)

Here we see the trite saying, "a drunk man speaks a sober mind" being lived out. Like almost every other moment in the book, everyone is drinking and it becomes obvious that Mike has had a little too much. Brett is being fought over once more. Here, Mike uses a simile and compares Cohn's life to that of a steer.

The steers are the animals that are supposed to be in the area to distract the bulls and keep them from going at eachother. I'm not exactly sure what kind of animal it is. I thinkit is either a small cow or a horse, but I don't really know. Usually the steer gets gored by the bull's horn. The fact that Mike compares Cohn to a steer tells the reader that Cohn's "friends" don't really see him as a very important person. The see him as more of someone who is there because he has to be. Also, while Mike is spitting out dirt on Cohn left and right, nobody stands up for Robert. There was actually a point in the book during this argument that said "Bill laughed." This evidence also adds onto my earlier blog and further shows how Cohn is the most shunned man in the book.