Of Mice and Men: My Impression of Curley's Wife

Of Mice and Men: In a letter, John Steinbeck wrote of Curley’s wife: ‘She’s a nice girl and not a floozy.’ Discuss and explain your own impression of Curley’s wife.

Curley’s wife is just a young woman seeking attention, feeling the only way she can receive it is if she throws herself at the men around the ranch. In all honesty, Curley should give her more attention than she could ever wish for, however, in the 1930s things were a lot different to how they are now for women.

Curley’s wife gives off the impression that she is a floozy and an extremely flirtatious woman throughout the whole novel. For example, when she leans her body against the pole “So her body was thrown forward.” This suggests that she is aiming to make all the males in the bunk house admire her female beauty, since her husband won’t.

Also she talks very playfully towards the men around the ranch, which illustrates that she seeks some fun and enjoyment, which she is clearly not receiving from Curley. This is why she wonders elsewhere. An example of this playfulness is when she says “If he ain’t, I guess I better go look some place else,” You may think that she is talking about looking for Curley, but in fact, this symbolises her looking for other sexual pleasures, with the other men.

The character of Curley’s wife shows an awful mean streak with her racism towards Crook’s in one of the chapters. Crook’s makes it clear that he does not have the desire to talk to her, resulting in a very serious threat towards him “Well you can keep your trap shut then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny” are the exact words she uses in the novel. This not only demonstrates that she is infuriated by the fact that nobody wants to talk to her, but it also shows the horrific racism that went on in the 1930’s, both Curley’s wife and Crook’s know that him having dark skin means the first sight of trouble and he will be abandoned or worse, killed. People with dark skin were treated like dirt in those days, Crook’s was nothing more than a tool, an animal, a disgrace! Curley’s wife desperately wants somebody to share conversation with and she feels very lonely and isolated, however, this is no excuse to be so prejudice against Crooks in my opinion.

Personally, I am not a big fan of the character of Curley’s wife. I feel some of her actions are very unnecessary and she should keep herself to herself, as appose to trying to flirt with all the males and going behind her husband’s back.