How Is Curley's Wife Presented As A Threat?

The perceptions we make of Curley's wife are corrupted from the views of the ranch hands. Because sexuality is her only weapon she is referred to by George as 'jailbait' and ' a tart' 'Jesus what a tramp.' George has reason to be weary of her presence especially with Lenny around and the incident in Weed. 'Listen to me you crazy bastard...Don't you even look at that bitch. He is concerned about Lennie safety because he knows he won’t be able to resist her.

Though Curley’s Wife is portrayed as a villain throughout most of the novel, we learn through her tragic story she tells Lennie that she is a victim of society. Lennie may have been the worst person for her to tell, as he is the only person on the farm who literally doesn't understand and process things with his brain like the others can. I can still understand her because it always feels good to get things off of your chest, regardless of who you are expressing yourself to. Take what you can get, and if you can only get Lennie, so be it. Her venting to Lennie can be seen as a plea for forgiveness.

She had to go day by day with the haunting of having no one to talk to besides her husband Curley, nothing to do all day, and living with the bitterness of her decisions. Initially in the novel Curley’s wife is described very critical; she is said to always be seeking the guy's attention. Many of the men would try to stay as far away as possible, including the main characters George and Lennie, but as the novel progressed her character is described more in depth. She really just wants more.

John Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife at the start of the story as an irrelevant character because she has no relation with George and Lennie. At the start, Curley is one of the most important characters (besides George and Lennie) because he has the power to crush George and Lennie’s dream of having a farm of your own. But as the story goes on, to end, we see the importance of her character and that everything that has happened on the ranch is caused by her presence; even though she is not in the story as much as others, she has a long lasting effect on the other characters. She is mentioned in the story a lot because of how she would acted around the men working in the ranch. In the end, we knew Lennie and George were not going to get a

We are first introduced to the character 'Curley's wife' in chapter two by Candy. We immediately see her being blamed for causing her husband’s arrogance “Curley is cockier'n ever since he got married”. An image of her as someone who should be blamed is therefore set up this early in the novel. Soon after this we get an impression of her appearance. Candy describes her as

Curley’s wife acts very provocative, playful, childish and flirtatious, this is because she is very lonely and has no power at all. Nobody knows the real person she is because no one ever dares to get in trouble with her. Curley’s wife is often presented negatively by Steinbeck such as when she is cruel to crooks after his hopes have been raised by the dream. This is easily shown when Curley’s wife snaps at Crooks. “keep your place then, Nigger.

By looking more closely at the story, one can see that Curley’s wife is also a metaphor which symbolizes the way which other people looked upon women in the society of the 1930’s. Curley’s wife represents a whole marginalized group in the American society at that time. In the novel, characters are never fully developed, but instead appear as outlines or symbols of real people. Candy, Crooks, and Curley's wife represent the discriminated groups of age, race, and sex. Curley’s wife has been given an overall picture in the eyes of George and Lennie before they even meet her, by Candy. The picture Candy paints about her hints at how she tends to give all the men on the ranch ‘the eye’. Nobody really knows Curley’s wife because nobody ever talks to her and listens to what she really has to say. Curley’s wife wants attention. She wants people to notice her. She is the only woman on the ranch out of all the men. She wears fancy clothes and nice make up to make her look beautiful and

Curley's wife is cast out because she is a woman. Curley watches over her carefully since she is his wife and the only woman on the farm. Curley does not allow his wife to converse with the other workers because he is afraid she will be unfaithful. She complains that individually, the men are generally nice, but in groups, they shun her and are sometimes cruel. Since Curley's wife is oppressed, she lashes out at a target that is weaker than she is, which is usually Crooks. He does the same.

Curleyś wife feels the negative effects of inequality when she is treated unfairly. This causes her to take out her anger on people with less power than her. In the book, Curley’s wife does not have much freedom to do what she wants. For example, on page 87 she says to Lennie, “ I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad.” People treat her as if she is Curley’s property. She lashes out at Crooks when she says, "Well, you keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny." She feels powerless, so she makes crooks scared of what she can do, so that she feels powerful.

Curley’s wife was treated as a terrible person in the book. “The eye” that they use to describe her shows a sense of disrespect towards her (28). They viewed her as a girl who manipulated others to get what she wanted. George says “Know what I think? Well, I think Curley’s married… a tart” (28).

As a result, she warns up to Lennie since he seemed to be the only one who will listen to her and not push her away like the rest of the characters. Even though, the other men perceive Curley as “jailbait”, what Curley’s wife wanted was to lighten the burden of desolation she has felt all these years and rely on someone who will

First, the men on the ranch don’t see Curley’s wife as a person, just as a tart and a possession. In fact, the ranch men only refer to her as “Curley’s wife” and is never given a name, this is to show that she is only seen as a possession of Curley’s. None of the ranch men want to talk to Curley’s wife because if they are mean to her she will get them fired and if they are nice to her Curley will get jealous and will get them fired. George knows this and tells Lennie, “Well, you keep away from her, ’cause she’s a rat-trap if I ever seen one” (p.32). Curley’s wife is not treated equally by the men because she is a

However, when she notices George and Lennie, Curley's wife claims she is "lookin' for Curley". Inferring she is cautious and reserved towards George and Lennie.

Curley’s wife is a lonely and Naïve, and that makes her an easy prey. She is the only woman on the ranch she is a lonely woman. Her husband, Curley, is a mean and over powering man, uses her to pick fights with other guys. He is a terrible husband who not only is mean to his wife but also leads us to believe that he beats her up. Curley’s wife usually would listen to her records but Curley even breaks those. Her flirtatious nature is what gets her into trouble, and that also leads her to her death. Lennie is a gentle giant who doesn’t mean to hurt anybody but accidentally does. In the case of Lennie, Curley’s wife does not know what she is getting in for. Curley’s wife flirtatious nature is a harsh reality but as an innocent person get her in to trouble.

Steinbeck uses Curley’s wife to show that some acts of violence may be performed out of loneliness both when she threatens Crooks and when she gets angry while talking to Lennie in the barn. Curley’s wife first acts violently out of loneliness when she is talking to Candy, Crooks, and Lennie in Crooks’ room. Curley’s wife was interrogating Lennie and began to ask if Lennie had ruined Curley’s hand. Crooks tries to step in telling Curley’s wife to leave. Accordingly, Curley’s wife begins to verbally attack Crooks saying “‘Listen, n*****,’ [...] ‘You what I can do to you if you open your trap?’” (Steinbeck 80). Curley’s wife had a sudden outburst because Crooks was trying to kick her out of the cabin ostracizing her and leaving her to feel lonely. It can be inferred that Curley’s wife didn’t mean any literal harm by what she said to Crooks. Accordingly, she just wanted to talk to someone and feel involved with the other people at the ranch, but felt