Of Mice And Men Curley's Wife Character Analysis

The novela Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck focuses on the lives of several itinerant farmhand workers during the Great Depression on a ranch in Soledad, California. During this time period, there was still segregation between races, as well as very few support systems for people who were too old or who had a disability and could no longer work. Also, because of the Depression, many people were traveling across the country, looking for work. George and Lennie are two such people who work on ranches temporarily before setting off to look for work again, usually because Lennie gets in some kind of trouble as an effect of his intellectual disability and lower comprehension of events. Thier lives are less lonely as some of the others on the farm, because, as George says, “‘[George
and Lennie] got somebody to talk to’”(14). Steinbeck uses three characters to illustrate how loneliness affects people: Curley’s Wife, the only woman on the farm; Candy, the one-handed swamper; and Crooks, the black stable worker.
The loneliness of these people dictate their interactions with the other workers on the farm and their actions towards others. Perhaps the most lonely person on the ranch is Curley’s Wife. She is isolated due to her gender and her marital status to Curley. Though she is married, she dislikes her husband and often looks toward the other men on the farm for attention and company, though her efforts are often ignored by the men because they did not want to get into any trouble with Curley, as he is the boss’s son and could get them fired. Also, the other men think of her as a “tart” for giving the workers “the eye” (28). This leaves Curley’s Wife alone, “never get[ting] to talk to nobody. [she] get[s] awfully lonely.” (86). Of course, she would not be so isolated if her dream of becoming an actress had come true. When talking to Lennie in the barn, she tells him, “when I was a kid. well, a show coun through, an’ I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show.” and, “If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet” (88). However, it is clear there is no way that Curley’s
Wife could have been an actress, because, “her voice had a nasal, brittle quality” and the only reason the actor told her that she could have been in the show was because he found her attractive and was flirting with her. Curley’s Wife was so eager to find an escape from her isolating that, while the rest of the men are having a horseshoe tournament, she goes and taks to Lennie in the barn, who is grieving the death of his pup. At first, Lennie tries to ignore her, saying that, “George says that [Curley’s Wife] will get us in a mess” (88). But, when Lennie starts to talk about how he likes to pet soft things, Curley’s Wife offers for Lennie to touch her hair. So, Lennie’s strong hands start stroking her hair, and when he starts petting too forcefully, Curley’s Wife starts yelling for him to stop, else he’ll mess it up. Because Lennie doesn’t know what to do in these kinds of situations, “Lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on” until “Lennie’s other hand closed over her mouth and nose” (91). Eventually, Lennie got mad at Curley’s Wife for continuing to scream and writhe, because he thought George wouldn’t let him tend the rabbits. and in his anger, he shook her body too hard and broke her neck. Curley’s Wife’s need for company is what controlled her actions, and eventually led to her death.
Candy is an old, stoop-shouldered man isolated from the other workers because of his age and physical limitation: being without one hand as a result of an accident with a machine. The boss only keeps him on the farm because he feels slightly guilty for what happened to Candy's hand, and has him feed the chickens and clean. He has no family, and his only friend is his dog. Unfortunately, his dog is very old and also has physical limitations, quite like Candy, and when Carlson decides he wants to shoot the dog because he stinks up the bunk house, Slim says, "'That dog ain't no good to himself. I wisht somebody'd shoot me if I got old an' a cripple" without realizing that he is basically telling Candy that he is no longer useful, and should be shot like a dog (45). Candy knows that it will only be a few years until the boss is going to fire him, and, being without a family, and being too old to find another job afterwards, he does not have a future. That is, until he overhears George telling Lennie about the dream ranch; how the place of their wishes has, “Got a little win’mill. Got a little shack on it, an’ a chicken run. Got a kitchen, orchard, cherries, apples, peaches, ‘cots, nuts, got a few berries. They’s a place for alfalfa and plenty water to flood it” (57). Candy hears this and asks George if he could help buy this place; he does have $350 in the bank, and on the farm that they buy, he could tend the chickens and hoe the garden. George agrees, figuring that by the end of the month, they will have $450 altogether and could actually buy the place.