Outline For Curley's Wife

Curley’s Wife

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
her actions have justice and readers reach some sympathy for her position as Curley’s wife. Being self-absorbed and lonely, Curley’s wife contributes significantly to the overall theme and story Of Mice and Men. Living on a vegetable field in California isn’t something to brag about. The climate is hot and dry and the conditions on the ranch aren’t pleasant. When others wear denim overalls and old fashioned dirty hats, Curley’s wife never fails to make her appearance known, “She had...wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages...She wore...red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers”(31). Her bright and vulgar appearance screams for attention from the other men on the ranch. In the conditions she’s living in, dressing the way she does is considered inappropriate and is completely out of place. Her arrogance in the way she dresses shows how self-absorbed she is as a character. Curley’s wife is also unfaithful to her husband and constantly flirts with others on the farm. She knows wearing tight dresses and heavy makeup will attract the attention of men which is extremely wrong since she is married. If she didn’t know she was attractive, she would never try to impress others which is why she is so self-absorbed. However, all her self-arrogance has some reason behind it, which is explained in Curley’s wife’s story about how she ended up in her predicament. Although Curley’s wife has shown a significant amount of negative features and actions, her loneliness causes readers to gain sympathy for her wrong-being. Being married to Curley is a problem in itself considering his temper and arrogance. Curley’s wife explains how he’s only open to talking about himself and doesn’t care much about her. When coming across Lennie in the barn, she explains, “‘Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’”(86). After saying this, one realizes that Curley’s wife may appear as happy and a show off through the way she dresses, but inside she is depressed and seeking companionship. After high hopes of becoming famous in Hollywood, her dreams are destroyed by her Mother who thinks she’s too young. She ends up with Curley and is unhappy and depressed after being deprived of a promising future. Curley’s wife has every right to be lonely due to her predicament and her attention-grabbing appearance explains her hopes of becoming famous. Not having anyone to talk to makes Curley’s wife latch on to some form of happiness, which she finds from getting the attention of others. Since no one cares about her personality, including her husband, she uses her appearance to get the the only people around her, which are men, to like her and enjoy her company. Her loneliness and long for someone to express her feelings with makes her a bitter and independent character. Although she’s only a minor character, Curley’s wife provides major significance to the novel as a whole. Curley’s wife is the major factor to Lennie’s death and is the symbol of a dying dream. She tried so hard to gain the attention of the men on the farm and she never received any. When she finally gets attention from Lennie, she panics which leads to her death. Being so young and full of hope and compassion, she is the significance of a dying dream, “Curley’s wife lay with a half-covering of yellow hay. And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face...she was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young”(93). Her lost dream not only affected herself, but other character’s dreams as well. George and Lennie’s dream to live on the small farm with all the animals is destroyed after Curley’s wife’s death. However, they’re not the only one’s effected, Candy also had hopes to live there and so did Slim and Carlson. The dream of living on this farm made working and making money worthwhile to the workers and the death of Curley’s wife is the end to this dream. The whole focus of the novel is the dreams of mice and men, Curley’s wife is the determining factor of how the dreams often go awry. Through her self-absorbed and lonely traits, Curley’s wife plays a significant role in the novel and prepares readers for the end of the story. Steinbeck shows that although she is considered a minor character, she has as much importance in the novel as Lennie or George would. Curley’s wife, who remains unnamed throughout the story, shows the whole point of how the dreams of men are often changed. She ended up on the ranch instead of being in the movies. Her dreams were changed, like Lennie’s. Her death makes readers question maybe if her dreams did come true, George & Lennie’s would too. Steinbeck creates these minor characters as puzzle pieces that connect to make the big picture of the novel. Curley’s wife, although having her negative moments, was a character who showed great potential with a dream. Curley’s wife contributes to the overall focus in the novel, that the dreams of mice and men often go awry.

Outline:
I. Introduction A. Curley’s wife i. minor character ii. contributes to Lennie’s death iii. contributes to overall focus of novel B. Traits i. self-absorbed ii. loneliness
II. Self-absorbed trait A. Appearance i. lives on vegetable farm ii. others dress very dirty iii.
“She had...wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages...She wore...red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers”(31). B. Unfaithful to Curley i. gains nothing but pity from the men C. Her story i. small note leading to next paragraph
III. Loneliness trait A. Being Curley’s wife i. never listened to ii. only talk about Curley iii. he doesn’t care about her B. Ruined dreams i. no one to talk to, nothing to look forward to ii. “‘Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’”(86). C. Uses appearance to feel something i. can’t be appreciated with personality ii. dresses nice to find someone that will appreciate her
IV. Analysis of Curley’s wife A. Significance i. Lennie’s death ii. loss of negativity iii. “Curley’s wife lay with a half-covering of yellow hay. And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face...she was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young”(93). B. Loss of dreams i. not only her dreams ii. no farm C. Tie in to the novel i. dreams of mice and men...awry
V. Conclusion
(points and tie in to how Curley’s wife is minor character with major
significance)