In the 1937 novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck there is a very powerful aspect of male dominance in the text. From a feminist’s point of view this story degrades women, and categorizes them as sexual objects.…
Curley’s Wife is portrayed as a “tart” and “tramp” according to the male characters in Of Mice and Men. She frequently flirts with the ranch hands on her father-in-laws’ farm. Even though she’s a trouble maker, Curley’s Wife experiences extreme loneliness and the hurt of her own broken dream. She explains on page 97 that she had a chance at an acting career but instead she was trapped into living an unhappy life with Curley. This proves that Curley’s wife is not a heartless “bitch” but actually a human being that has aspirations and…
Curley’s wife wasn’t always mean. She was a sweet innocent girl named Emma, but one day her childhood was scarred. Emma was born somewhere in Salinas into a poor family, struggling to survive twenty years before the great depression. Her mother was fair and beautiful. She was well educated and in her late twenties when she gave birth to Emma. Her father was an alcoholic who always came home intoxicated after his 9-5 job. To go along with his heavy drinking, her father was also abusive and occasionally beat his his wife and daughter.…
In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the two main characters, George and Lennie, frequently run into Curley, a contentious and hostile man. Curley is one of the main sources of conflict in the book, as we see when George warns Lennie: “…You gonna have trouble with that Curley guy… He’s gonna take a sock at you the first chance he gets” (Steinbeck, 29). Curley is representative of aggression and oppression, which Steinbeck shows us in both Curley’s actions and words.…
Curley's wife changed throughout the book as readers got to know her and also readers opinions. First, readers a get a very negative aspect of her from the males in the bunkhouse. Especially when George says, “I seen em’ poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her” (Steinbeck 32). Right away in the story you are told and have the feelings to hate her. Secondly, readers start to get a little more insight on how lonely she is by how much she is around, and what she says.…
Explore the ways Steinbeck presents the character of Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men…
In the novel of “Of Mice and Men” Steinbeck invented an extremely ambiguous character known as Curely’s Wife. Readers would ether like or dislike the personality of Curley’s Wife. Her dream was to be in the movies as she quotes “Nother time I met a guy an’ he was in pitchers. Went out to the Riverside Dance Palace with him. He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural” In the novel she was massively disliked by the other characters for her attracting the attention of other men when she was married. She does this by the way she dresses. This makes her sexually provocative and attractive to men.…
The book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck portrays the story of two migrant workers, George and Lennie, who are completely different people, but who stick together in the face of discrimination and loneliness. There are many different characters who each have their own hopes and aspirations that are depicted in the book, however one character that stands out is Curley’s wife. At first, the book introduces her as a seductress who dresses extravagantly and wears too much makeup. The men on the ranch say she plays around and they call her names such as “tart” or “jail bait”. She is defined by her role in the book, Curley’s wife. In other words, Curley’s property. She is never given a name throughout the book, only being referred to as Curley’s wife. However, as the book goes on, the reader begins to learn the complexities of Curley’s wife. It is revealed that she has a dream of her own, to be in the movies, and hates being tied down on the ranch. “ ‘Nother time I met a guy, an’…
Curley’s wife is a pivotal character and central to the plot. Her role as a catalyst proves to be essential as it creates a chain of reactions within other characters, creating action for the reader. Even more tension is created as her downward relationship with Curley is full of conflict. She is not given an identity, and from this, we are led to believe that she has no status or power. She is called Curley’s wife and from this we assume she is a possession of Curley. This creates a distance between her and the reader. In the 1930's, throughout the Great Depression, the social status of women was quite low. Men did not take women seriously and the major role of women was to cook, clean, and raise the children. Curley's wife is a ideal example of how women were viewed in the early 20th century. With women having such a low social status during the Great Depression, Curley's jealously, and Curley's wife being portrayed as trouble, it becomes quite difficult for her to overcome her loneliness.…
Steinbeck uses Curley’s wife to represent how many women in the 1930s were classed below men, and how this prejudice allowed their lives to be defined by the men around them. In this passage, Steinbeck has manipulated Curley’s wife’s appearance in order to reinforce our pre judged feelings towards her, based on gossip and rumours told by Candy.…
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck creates characters that play important roles throughout the story that contribute to themes and connect readers to an overall focus. Curley’s wife, a minor, but significant character in the story, contributes to the theme and is partly responsible for Lennie’s death. Her sinful actions and petty personality make her a character that isn’t respected by others and is known for being trouble around the ranch. Disregarding her flirtations ways and overall self-absorbance, her dreams of a promising future are destroyed. Her gaudy appearance and constant search for Curley makes the men on the ranch view her as a cheater and inappropriate woman. However, after hearing her story, some of…
John Steinbeck planned out every word he put into his novel Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck did exactly this with the development of the character Curley’s wife. She had started the novel as a “tart” or a nuisance of a character, but later she turned into an admriable character, one that you really feel for.…
The novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ written by John Steinbeck was set in the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was difficult for everyone, especially women who were treated by contempt by men. One of the main characters of the novella is a woman who is referred to as ‘Curley’s Wife’. She is a misinterpreted woman who craves attention and this eventually leads to her death. Curley’s wife is important in this novella because as this character develops, we find that she is a complex character with more than we first perceive.…
How are Crooks and Curley’s Wife presented as weakened/marginalised characters in the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’?…
Curley’s wife, in Of Mice and Men, finds Lennie alone in the ban one night and confesses it him her broken lifelong dream of becoming a movie star. She explains, “Well, a show came through, an’ I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’t let me… If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet” (88). Curley’s nameless wife is not a character, but the embodiment of the unattainable American Dream. She is an excellent example of the countless people who were forced to settle for less than the perfection of the dream.…