Of Mice and Men - Crooks and Curley's Wife

Steinbeck's novel 'Of Mice and Men' explores the everyday lives of migrant workers during the Great Depression. In this era, American men were forced to leave their families and become 'drifters'. These were people who didn't have a fixed job and continually moved from place to place.

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.

The ranch owners are always eager to whip or kill someone. Curley, for example, is always ready to fight anyone who laughs or looks at him. The ranch owners, however, are always depicted weaker than the workers. Nevertheless, the blacks are always depicted weaker than all. The blacks are in the bottom of the social ladder. Crooks, for instance, has his own room in which no one is allowed. He is isolated from everything. He works separately in the bunkhouse. He is not allowed to leave his room at night. He is not allowed to play cards with other workers. “His isolation is not existential but racial. Crooks inability to participate socially with white people is emblematic of the pervasive racial segregation in America” (Lobodziec.n.pg.). Steinbeck utilizes marginalization as a symbol. He symbolizes blacks as a stain upon the image of America. Nevertheless, he represents women below the men, but a level above the blacks. Curley’s wife, for instance, is not given a name. She is called Curley’s wife throughout the novel. She seeks emotional closeness with other men, who she hopes can offer some comfort and sympathy which her husband does not provide. In doing so, she approaches them with tempting gestures. Yet, she is a placed a level higher than Crooks because of her skin tone. It is demonstrated when Curley’s wife threatens Crooks with the

Steinbeck has written ''Of Mice And Men '' about an adventure of George and Lennie trying to accomplish their American dream's during the Great Depression during the 1930's where thousands of people lost their jobs in the Wall Street Crash making them feel hopeless. George and Lennie come to work at a ranch near Soledad in California. There they meet fellow ranch mates and a woman called Curley's Wife. In this essay I will focus on how Curley's Wife's personality and actions change throughout the novella and who she affect her and other bunkmates throughout the novella. In addition to that I would be showing how Steinbeck creates tension by using Curleys Wife.

While Crooks, a victim of racial prejudice, expresses his isolation openly, he also socializes with the other workers on the job and while playing horseshoes with them. Curley’s wife, on the other hand, cannot talk to anyone without suffering the consequences of a jealous husband: “I get lonely,’ she said. “You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?” (87) More specifically,after meeting him that same night, Curley’s wife ran away from home to marry Curley to spite her mother. She further confessed to Lennie she doesn’t even like Curley. As a result, she left one situation hoping to move closer to capturing her dreams, but her companion’s jealous and violent behavior prevents her from even socializing with others.(88) Therefore, she went from living with multiple people to living with only Curley, who is supposed to be her companion and someone she

Some characters in this novel are alienated by mainstream society because they do not fit society’s ideal image of a person. And they are all not accepted as human beings. Throughout John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, the social injustice of how people were treated during the Great Depression is explored through the characters Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Lennie, to show that society actually needs to become stronger than it really is.

In Of Mice & Men, the character Curley’s Wife is depicted as flirtatious, promiscuous, and insensitive. However, her husband Curley sees her as only a possession. Most of the workers at the ranch see her as a tart, whereas Slim, the peaceful and god-like figure out of all the men, see her as lonely. This answer will tell us to which extent, is Curley’s wife a victim, whether towards her flirtatious behaviour, or to everyone’s representation of her.

Curley had money, which was something that she needed so she chose him for a husband. She then is disappointed with her present life and unhappy with her new husband.

In the 1930’s, during the time of the Great Depression, many people were affected by discrimination and mistreatment. About 50% of the African Americans were treated negatively because they were a different race, not white, but “black”. Reflecting on Crooks, Lennie, and Curley’s wife, they were all mistreated by the people on the ranch in Soledad, California in the novel, “Of Mice and Men”, by John Steinbeck. Crooks is discriminated by his boss and the men, Lennie is misunderstood by his mental and physical appearance, and Curley’s wife is rejected by the other members of the ranch.

In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men characters in the novel are segregated by sex, race, age, physical and mental disabilities. John Steinbeck portrays the intolerance and bigotry of 1930’s America through the separation of his characters based on their handicaps. Lennie, Candy, Candy’s dog, Curley’s wife and Crooks all face social pressure from the other characters on the ranch based on their intelligence, physical disability, age, sex and color. Stereotyping based on ethnic or physical characteristics is typical to the 1930’s depression where civil rights for minority groups had not yet been addressed. Almost all of the characters who, in

Readers abhor her racial abuse of Crooks and condemn her for being patronising and threatening towards him. The use of the hyphen makes the readers stop and fully absorb the intensity of the situation before moving on and it enables them to take in the cruelty and nastiness of Curley’s wife. She aggravates the situation as she is discriminating crooks in his very own room and this evokes emotions and feelings of disgust and abhorrence towards Curley’s wife and this portrays her as none other than a villain. Curley’s wife is able to contradict her generally low and degrading status as she is aware of the fact that, in this case, she is superior to Crooks and the other two men (Lennie and

Curley’s wife is what we in modern day might call a “tease”, but there is more to her than

From black people to white people, to the old and the young, almost every person was discriminated against in some way during the depression and even today. Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men takes place during the Great Depression, 1940s era and describes a very realistic situation about characters who are simply trying to get by and chasing the “American Dream” but struggles with conflict within themselves and the outside world. Discrimination was a common theme of Of Mice and Men and greatly affected the lives of the characters in the novella. Some characters include: Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Candy. The novella is a realistic representation of discrimination in society.

Crooks, Curley, Candy and Curley 's wife are all lonely, but all for different reasons such as discrimination and prejudice. Crooks is a black man who has always been pushed aside from every group. He is treated as second class, he

This key root involved George and Lennie dream of handling their own ranch; however, Lennie’s tragic end was the result of his innocence that caused the death of Curley’s wife making his death inevitable by George that ultimately crushed their dream. In addition to, the reader witnesses how Curley’s wife had her own aspirations and dreams of becoming an actress ever since she grew up in Salinas (Steinbeck’s hometown), but it was crushed due to her mother’s hegemony and her marriage with Curley which she opposes. On the other hand, Attell’s analysis also validates social realism with Crooks. Crooks, a black man, is shunned out by the white society because of his race that led him to his unfortunate fate of being discriminated from the prejudiced