John Steinbeck presents the less powerful characters as abused, mistreated outcasts who struggle to fit in with those par their own.
Outcasts can turn to each other but if they get too close or unstable it could demolish the both of them.” She knelt in the hay beside him” hay can be represented as horses and gives us the idea that they are about to die. Horses lay down when they know that their time is near. It could also show that they have no one but each other to turn to and that they are feeling even more excluded than ever before. It’s a bit like the Hunger Games as they need each other as allies to survive. They would help each other and because Curley’s wife knelt down beside him it’s like she sees him as one of her own, like they are on the same level power wise. I will return to this image later on in my essay.
We have been introduced to Curley’s wife as the libertine featherbrain by the males on the ranch “Jesus what a tramp [George to Lennie]”the boys don’t personally know her yet they are all prejudging her of her looks and the way she acts. This shows that the only way she has the power over the men is sexually. Not even Curley takes her seriously. She seems lonely and only wants to talk to the men so that she can relate to them and find a friend. The reason why the men would judge her so much is due to sexual frustration that is caused by her. This could also link back to the 1930’s as women we meant to just look pretty and pleasure their men. Not only that, they were seen to have no rights to themselves. They couldn’t vote, couldn’t go off on their own, they had to marry the first man that asks and do his dirty washing for the rest of their lives.
In Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife was viewed as “ jail bait” this basically means that she’s a trap that’s being fished into all of the men and trying to catch one unlucky sap to say he forced himself upon her. This could lead to being fired or being lynched. In the