Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Of Mice and Men

Good Essays
397 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Of Mice and Men
The presentation of Curley's wife is an interesting topic and her place as the only woman the reader meets in the novella puts her in a unique position. John introduced us to a character called Curley's wife, she plays a complex and misfit character as she got so many different sides to her, as sometimes the reader feels sympathetic and unsympathetic about her. John Steinbeck's novel of Mice and Men is an example of how the reader's perception of a character can change without the character actually changing.
Steinbeck uses many different techniques to present Curley's wife such as colour imagery, appearance, metaphors and similes in the early stages of the novel. The effect of these techniques is that the reader creates a mental image of Curley's wife even before she even enters the novel.
This perception is further emphasized by Curley's Wife's first appearance in the novel. Steinbeck uses light symbolically to show that she can be imposing when he writes, "The rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off."
Steinbeck portrays her in a horrible manner; he shows her as unintelligent and unimportant figures. Curley's wife is a prime example of how Steinbeck presents women; she is the most prominent woman in the book, so there are more citations about her. Primarily, she isn't even given a name;
In of mice and men, Curleys Wife is presented in many various ways. At first impression, she comes across as the seductive, troublemaker the ranchers see her as. However, as the story progresses, we learn that this is only one of many sides to a very lonely woman. The readers sympathy for this character also changes throughout the novel, as her secrets are revealed and the real Curley's Wife is found.
Curley's Wife is a very complex character. The reader's first impression of her is created before she actually appears in the book. We find out what the workers think of Curley's Wife through Candy when George and Lennie first arrive at the ranch. Candy, who considers Curley's Wife to be the reason for everything wrong in the whole of Soledad, creates an image of Curley's Wife in the reader's mind as a flirtatious tramp who's "got the eye." Candy calls her a "tart" and warns George against her, causing George, Lennie and the reader to see Curley's wife through Candy's eyes on their first encounter.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Explore the ways Steinbeck presents the character of Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men…

    • 1310 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Curley’s wife is a key character to ‘Of Mice and Men’ because she plays such a vital role in the story. She is the only woman on the ranch, and it is her presence and her behaviour that bring about Lennie’s final downfall. Although her behaviour may be partly because she is lonely, the men dislike her because she is both malicious and flirtatious. Even when she is dead, Candy talks about her disrespectfully and blames her for spoiling the dream.…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Curley's Wife Analysis

    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages

    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’…

    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book, the first time we are introduced to Curley’s Wife is through another character: Candy. This suggests that she must be quite an important character as she is being rumoured about. He says “Wait’ll you see Curley’s Wife”, this quotation intrigues the reader and makes them wonder about Curley’s Wife. Then Candy goes on to say “she’s got the eye” which subtly suggests to the reader that even though she has just been married she is not happy with her relationship and doesn’t really like Curley otherwise she wouldn’t be giving anybody “the eye”. Also, Steinbeck’s use of ellipsis “yeah,purty...but” and “Well,I think Curley’s married…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    John introduced us to a character called Curley's wife, she plays a complex and misfit character as she got so many different sides to her, as sometimes the reader feels sympathetic and unsympathetic about her. John Steinbeck's novel of Mice and Men is an example of how the reader's perception of a character can change without the character actually changing.…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Curley’s wife is the only woman from the novel of mice and men written by John Steinbeck. She is the wife of the boss’s son Curley. She has no friends besides Curley as the live on a ranch with all of the workers who are all men. She tries to speak to men throughout the novel but none of them want anything to do with her. She is lonely and bored because of this.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Outline For Curley's Wife

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages

    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…

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Curley's wife

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Steinbeck's initial portrayal of Curley's wife shows her to be a mean and seductive temptress. Alive, she is connected to Eve in the Garden of Eden. She brings…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Section 5- with Lennie

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Steinbeck forces the reader to alter their perception on Curley’s wife throughout this chapter. She starts to act sincere and we begin to feel that we have finally met the real Curley’s wife. She is no longer represented as a sexual figure and starts to show her emotions. It makes us feel like she wants to love and to be loved.…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Of Mice and Men

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Granted that Curley’s Wife is mainly seen as a victim of multiple discriminations, one who was opposing the idea of the victimization of Curley's Wife could attach her to certain villainous characteristics. Curley’s Wife is given no name in this novel besides the ones that the men on the ranch call her. Names like “Tart”, “Rat Trap”, and “Tramp”, are the ones that the men define her as. We can see early on in the story that Curley’s Wife lives up to these nicknames when she enters the bunkhouse for the first time, “She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up” (Steinbeck 31). In this portion of the story, Curley’s Wife is given an image, and it is the image of a woman who is seeking attention. She uses the attention she receives to manipulate the men who work on the ranch. This is not the only villainous quality Curley’s Wife has; she is also very harsh towards some of the ranch workers, especially Crooks the black stable buck. We see the racist attitude that Curley’s Wife exerts upon Crooks when she claims, “’Well, you keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny’” (Steinbeck 81). Curley’s Wife threatens to have Crooks lynched, all because he…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Curleys Wife

    • 1322 Words
    • 4 Pages

    One of the ways the reader can learn about a Character is through the other Characters description and their opinion of that character, in the case of Curleys’ Wife the first we hear of her is from Crooks, the old swamper, when he is talking to George during a game of cards. He states, “she got the eye” which shows that she is a flirtatious and an immoral woman because she has only been married for two weeks. Candy also describes her as a “tart” (a tart is a woman who dresses or behaves in a way that is considered tasteless and sexually provocative). The fact that Curleys’ Wife is introduced through rumours means that the reader has a biased impression of her.…

    • 1322 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    curleys wife

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Curley's wife is a complex, main character in John Steinbeck's novella, "Of Mice and Men" She is introduced at the beginning and ultimately causes the end of the novella, her naivity and flirtatiousness leading to her inevitable death at the hand of Lennie, confused and scared by her forwardness and eventual unrest.…

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays