Of Mice And Men Curley's Wife Essay

In the Steinbeck novel ‘Of Mice and Men’, he introduces us to the character of Curley’s wife. She could be interpreted as a mis-fitting character in the novel, as no one relaters to her. This essay will go on to examine the character of Curley’s wife and how characters perceive her and how this influences the readers interpretation of her.

The Loneliness of Curley’s Wife Thesis Statement: In the book, Of Mice And Men, Curley’s wife is the most lonely person in the book. In the book, Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife makes it clear through her conversations with other characters that she is the most lonely in the story. She is a lonely girl that has no friends at all.

John Steinbeck uses Curley 's wife to portray the woman 's role in the 1930s. Back then, women were treated as property and trophies to their husbands. Women 's insignificance is signified by the fact that Curley 's wife is never given a name. She is always referred to as Curley 's belonging. Additionally, Carlson 's statement about Curley 's wife needing to go back to her place where she belongs characterizes women 's roles by saying that women should be at home performing domestic chores. In essence, women were looked down upon and never seen as equal to the men.

I don’t care what she says and what she does. I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her” (pg. 32). Curley’s wife tries to get attention from someone besides Curley by showing herself off, but the men on the ranch realize that if they respond to Curley’s wife, it will elicit a violent response from him and a possibility of getting kicked off the ranch. The result is that Curley’s wife gets a lot of negative attention without any actual friendship. She is also the only woman on the entire ranch from what Steinbeck describes. She cannot talk to the men and there are no women that Curley might allow her to talk to, leaving her without any meaningful relationships. Despite her efforts, she ends up even more separated from the other people on the ranch.

Curley's wife proves to be a flirtatious character in John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. She is the only woman on the ranch and uses her beauty as power to flirt with the guys on the ranch and make her husband jealous. The other guys on the ranch know that she is trouble and refer to her as “jailbait” or “tart” because of the way she dresses and acts to attract attention from all of the guys. Although she is known as trouble on the ranch, she talks a lot about how she was offered to be in the shows, but that dream was crushed by her mother who said that she was too young. During the time this novel was written, women were not well respected and this explains her behaviour throughout the story. Over all, Curley's wife demonstrates to be a tempting, good looking, yet lonely women who often uses her looks to get what she wants.

According to Steinbeck, Curley’s Wife doesn’t have a memorable reputation. The author, himself, makes a great deal of references outlining her social status as a minority. Essentially, all that Curley’s Wife is known for is her beauty. She spends most of her day flirting with the other ranch members. However, every time she surrounds herself with other men, there is always a sense of mockery imputed upon her.

Despite being the only female on a ranch full of foul-mouthed men, Curley's wife exploits both her sexuality and her status to demonstrate power throughout the novel. Though the men often thought that she was ineffectual, she made certain to quickly prove them wrong. For example, when talking to Crooks she was exceedingly straightforward with her authority: “Well you keep your place then, ni**er. I could get you strung up on a tree so fast it ain’t even funny”(81). Even though she was a woman, Curley’s wife had an authority over others on the ranch because she was married to the boss’s son.

The world Curley’s Wife lives in is one where women are discriminated against and as a result, women are treated way differently. In a letter from John Steinbeck to Claire Luce, Steinbeck tells Ms. Luce how, “No man has ever considered her as anything except a girl to try to make. She has never talked to a man except in the sexual fencing conversation.” (Steinbeck).

John Steinbeck, the author, uses this societal pressure as the foundation of how she's treated by the men. Curley’s wife is never named, purposefully by Steinbeck to show the objectification that came with marriage during this time. When she isn’t being referred to as a ‘tart’ or another derogatory slang, her whole identity comes from the fact that she is married to Curley and therefore is his property. One key difference in the way the marriage is portrayed in the novel is the way they refer to each other while interacting with other characters. For example, in Chapter 3, Curley bursts into the men’s bunkhouse, saying “Any you guys seen my wife?” In contrast, Curley’s wife only ever refers to him as Curley, his given name. Many interactions like this display how respect isn't necessary concerning Curley’s wife, painting her in a picture of uselessness and vanity because she is a

“Loneliness was an unsatisfied thirst for illusion.” KOBO ABE. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck shows the desperateness from Curley’s wife to be accompanied or be acknowledged for her existence. Curley’s wife says “What kinda harm am I doin' to you? Seems like they ain't none of them cares how I gotta live (43).” When Curley’s wife said this it shows that she feels that nobody cares how she is doing or how she is living. When she mentions this in the novel, it introduces her feelings and how she feels deserted. In addition, Curley's wife also says “I tell you I ain't used to livin' like this. I coulda made somethin' of myself (43).” The narrator introduces the high expectations she hoped for. Steinbeck shows her forlorn life by her actions,

The repetition of the colour ‘red’ suggests danger and passion, supported by similarities between her and the girl in Weed. Not only is Curley’s wife described as a floozy, but also as threatening. When she enters the barn where Crook and Candy are, they are both afraid and ‘were scowling down away from her eyes’ this prevention of eye contact could be seen that she is exerting power over the men. She exercises her power by threatening to hang Crooks, ‘I could get you stung up on a tree so easy’, this links to the theme of violence as she acts meanly and cruelly which reflects the social hierarchy of the time. She goes from being bullied by the men to bullying the ‘weak ones’. Curley’s wife gets frustrated by their unresponsive behaviour towards her. She is used to highlight the racist society and to show the status of black people at that time in America.

Our splendid plan for life has been demolished and there is nothing to do. In Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men there is only one woman, Curley’s wife. An official name was never given to her because the world was very sexist during this aeon. All of the farm workers such as, Slim, George, Lennie, Candy, Carlson, Whit, and Crooks all thought that Curley’s

Although she is married to Curley, Curley always likes to pick fights with everyone if he sees anyone near his wife. Curley's wife feels it is unfair that she can not talk to anyone, but the men do not want to talk to her either, for example she walks into some ranchmen's conversation and does not understand why they push her away she thinks, “‘... I ain't giving you no trouble. Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in awhile? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?’”(76). Curley's wife is lonely, lonely from having absolutely no one.

In John Steinbeck’s book, Of Mice and Men, the theme shown is that everyone should have someone to get through life with, no matter who they are through the use of character development, conflict, and symbolism. Firstly, the author shows this through the use of character development in Curley’s wife, and how even though she acts powerful, she also wants someone to love. Although she has Curley, Curley’s wife shows that she just wants someone that will listen to her and care about her when she says to Lennie, “Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody?” (Steinbeck, 1945, pg. 87). Curley’s wife is so desperate to have someone to just talk to that she is constantly hanging around the boys even though they don’t like her being there. Additionally,

In Of Mice and Men, by John Steinback, the characters that are seen in the story aren’t often such a big impact to the story, but they do play a key role in the story by demonstrating some of the big issues back in the great depression. Candy is used as a way of showing social discrimination used to be for old people and handicaps. Crooks, on the other hand, is used as a way to demonstrate the discrimination based on your type of race back when the emancipation proclamation was fairly new and was barely coming into play. Curley’s wife, is seen as a tool that is being used by Curley to grant him power. All of these characters symbolize one thing or another in Of Mice and Men.