In What Ways Does Steinbeck Present Curley's Wife
In this passage, what methods does Steinbeck use to present Curley’s wife and the attitudes of others around her?
And
How does Steinbeck present attitudes towards women in the society in which the novel is set?
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. At the beginning of the passage, Steinbeck uses contrast and repetition to create strong imagery in our minds regarding Curley’s wife. The careful juxtaposition of ‘the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off’ and ‘a girl’ is surprising and shows the reader how despite these tones of darkness and immorality conveyed Steinbeck about her, she is but a young, naïve little girl. She is also ‘looking in’, which effectively conveys curiosity and shows how apart from everyone she is, and could suggest a longing for …show more content…
friendship or a life more interesting than on the ranch. The adjective ‘red’ has connotations of evil and dishonesty and could cause the reader to feel contempt towards her, and its repetition underlines the extent of her dislikeable features.
Steinbeck also convincingly portrays an air of confidence about her and causes her to seem attention-seeking by using her actions, and saying that ‘her body was thrown forward’. The verb ‘thrown’ immediately conveys the harshness and strength of the action, suggesting that she is truly desperate for attention, and perhaps even for sexual attention from the men, as throwing her body forward would highlight her features. However, when Lennie begins to look at her, ‘she bridled a little’, which could convey coyness. On the other hand, I think it further shows her naivety, as she seems slightly unaware of the consequences of her actions and isn’t sure of the attention that she seems to be begging for. This does cleverly show how the men on the ranch can feel she is a ‘tart’, as she draws attention to her body and doesn’t act in the way women at the time were often expected to act.
Steinbeck further conveys her innocence through her fantasy of being put in the movies and being made an actress.
She confides in Lennie and tells him she met a man who said that ‘he was gonna put me in the movies’, which strongly suggests her inability to tell truth from lies and conveys that her desperation to have another life has caused her to believe in this fantasy. However, Steinbeck moves into past tense when Curley’s Wife says that she ‘always thought’ her mother stole it, and next uses a short sentence, ‘so I married Curley’, which could suggest that perhaps she doesn’t entirely believe in her becoming an actress anymore, and that maybe at the time she thought that marrying Curley would act as a new way of life instead. Together these convey that she was not wholly happy in her childhood life, and through this Steinbeck has portrayed for women in the 1930s, their fates rested in men’s
hands.
The constant, cruel gossiping about Curley’s wife contrasts with the way they seem of think highly about the brothel owner, Suzy. Though this could seem shocking to the reader, Steinbeck has cleverly conveyed the power of rumour and scandal, and how that listening to someone else’s opinion of someone before meeting them can entirely influence you unchanging opinion of them. He has amplified this point as even the reader forms an opinion of Curley’s wife as a ‘tramp’ before even meeting her. This human need to protect oneself and seek out danger in other people could be why Steinbeck has made image so important in ‘Of Mice and Men’. In 1930s America, there was a craze sweeping the country, particularly California, of movie stars and red carpets. Through Curley’s wife, Steinbeck has shown how strongly affected some women were by these unrealistic daydreams, and how perhaps this turned into their own version of the American Dream.
Curley’s wife is presented as being ‘heavily made up’ and having ‘full, rouged lips’ and ‘red mules’, which together convey that she does little work on the ranch and aspires more to physical beauty rather than self fulfilment and achievement. It could suggest that she lets herself be defined by her image because she feels she’s good for nothing else, as many women at the time were being shown these images of women who’d become famous according to their beauty.
I think it is possible that Steinbeck wrote ‘Of Mice and Men’ to show the importance in understanding each other and now judging based on physical appearance, prejudice and other’s opinions.
45 minutes
And
How does Steinbeck present attitudes towards women in the society in which the novel is set?
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. At the beginning of the passage, Steinbeck uses contrast and repetition to create strong imagery in our minds regarding Curley’s wife. The careful juxtaposition of ‘the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off’ and ‘a girl’ is surprising and shows the reader how despite these tones of darkness and immorality conveyed Steinbeck about her, she is but a young, naïve little girl. She is also ‘looking in’, which effectively conveys curiosity and shows how apart from everyone she is, and could suggest a longing for …show more content…
friendship or a life more interesting than on the ranch. The adjective ‘red’ has connotations of evil and dishonesty and could cause the reader to feel contempt towards her, and its repetition underlines the extent of her dislikeable features.
Steinbeck also convincingly portrays an air of confidence about her and causes her to seem attention-seeking by using her actions, and saying that ‘her body was thrown forward’. The verb ‘thrown’ immediately conveys the harshness and strength of the action, suggesting that she is truly desperate for attention, and perhaps even for sexual attention from the men, as throwing her body forward would highlight her features. However, when Lennie begins to look at her, ‘she bridled a little’, which could convey coyness. On the other hand, I think it further shows her naivety, as she seems slightly unaware of the consequences of her actions and isn’t sure of the attention that she seems to be begging for. This does cleverly show how the men on the ranch can feel she is a ‘tart’, as she draws attention to her body and doesn’t act in the way women at the time were often expected to act.
Steinbeck further conveys her innocence through her fantasy of being put in the movies and being made an actress.
She confides in Lennie and tells him she met a man who said that ‘he was gonna put me in the movies’, which strongly suggests her inability to tell truth from lies and conveys that her desperation to have another life has caused her to believe in this fantasy. However, Steinbeck moves into past tense when Curley’s Wife says that she ‘always thought’ her mother stole it, and next uses a short sentence, ‘so I married Curley’, which could suggest that perhaps she doesn’t entirely believe in her becoming an actress anymore, and that maybe at the time she thought that marrying Curley would act as a new way of life instead. Together these convey that she was not wholly happy in her childhood life, and through this Steinbeck has portrayed for women in the 1930s, their fates rested in men’s
hands.
The constant, cruel gossiping about Curley’s wife contrasts with the way they seem of think highly about the brothel owner, Suzy. Though this could seem shocking to the reader, Steinbeck has cleverly conveyed the power of rumour and scandal, and how that listening to someone else’s opinion of someone before meeting them can entirely influence you unchanging opinion of them. He has amplified this point as even the reader forms an opinion of Curley’s wife as a ‘tramp’ before even meeting her. This human need to protect oneself and seek out danger in other people could be why Steinbeck has made image so important in ‘Of Mice and Men’. In 1930s America, there was a craze sweeping the country, particularly California, of movie stars and red carpets. Through Curley’s wife, Steinbeck has shown how strongly affected some women were by these unrealistic daydreams, and how perhaps this turned into their own version of the American Dream.
Curley’s wife is presented as being ‘heavily made up’ and having ‘full, rouged lips’ and ‘red mules’, which together convey that she does little work on the ranch and aspires more to physical beauty rather than self fulfilment and achievement. It could suggest that she lets herself be defined by her image because she feels she’s good for nothing else, as many women at the time were being shown these images of women who’d become famous according to their beauty.
I think it is possible that Steinbeck wrote ‘Of Mice and Men’ to show the importance in understanding each other and now judging based on physical appearance, prejudice and other’s opinions.
45 minutes