Oppression Of Women In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In the novel, the lines “She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress of red ostrich feathers.” (Steinbeck, 32) describe the physical appearance of Curley’s wife. In the quote above, we see the color red, a symbol in the novella, mentioned several times. Red often appears on stop signs or traffic lights. In either case, they tell people stop, or else they will suffer consequences. Red attracts attention and causes temptation, but the men around her must resist their desire or pay for their misstep. Curley’s wife, a magnet for trouble, wears this bold and dangerous color. Her presence gives off a warning; avoid her or else pay the price. The color red also reminds the reader of fresh blood, foreshadowing the death of Curley’s wife and Lennie, causing the shattering of George and Lennie’s dream. Yet, in the movie, Curley’s wife does not wear bright red dress; Curley’s wife does not wear red mules with ostrich feathers; Curley’s wife does not use red nail polish. Instead, she often wears white with pink, two much more innocent and pure colors. This detail, despite seeming to be frivolous, is an essential symbol that should not have been left out. Without this detail, the wife’s dangerous and trouble-creating characterization is not as prominent.

The colour red is also used a lot to describe Curley's wife. Steinbeck describes her as having "rouged lips", "red mules" and "red ostrich feathers". Suggesting red is a colour that is associated with Curley's wife, and that she signifies danger. Adding to this, during Curley's wife's conversation with George and Lennie, "Lennie's eyes moved up and down her body". This immediately alerts the reader that Curley's wife is dangerous. As previously George and Lennie had to run from their last job in Weed, due to Lennie's attraction to petting soft things. After this conversation, George calls her "jailbait" and a "rattrap", he knows that she is dangerous, and warns Lennie to keep out of her way. It is evident from these points that Curley's wife is a dangerous and provocative character, and one that should be avoided.

Equality has been a hot topic in the past century. Women and African-Americans have not had equality for that long. Women gained quality in the 1920s and African-Americans gained equality in the 1960s. It took them a lot of time to get those rights and dream in Of Mice and Men, show equality must be worked for. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck utilizes the characters of Crooks and Curley’s wife to illustrate that equality takes a long time to come by.

“So you forgot that awready, did you? I gotta tell you again , do I ? Jesus christ, you're a crazy bastard!” George says (4-5). You can infer that the two characters have some issues with each other. In Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck shows the weaknesses that most of the characters have and the trials they face with those weaknesses. The characters such as Lennie, Crooks and Candy all have something that happens to them in the story that brings out their weaknesses. John Steinbeck portrays the effects that weak people reveal through the characters Lennie, Crooks and Candy.

John Steinbeck uses different methods to present Curley’s Wife and women in the 1930s. Throughout the novella Steinbeck represents women to be lower in society than men. In the novella women only have three different roles. A wife, an aunt and prostitutes. Steinbeck uses these roles to show the roles of women in society. Curley’s wife, Aunt Clara and Susy and Clara from the cathouse represent he microcosm of the women in American society.

History is full of examples of how power affects people's behaviors towards others. Well known examples in history include Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. Kim Jong-Il, Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein are more recent examples of the negative abuse of power. In the novella Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, a common theme throughout the story is the misuse of power. Steinbeck uses the characters Curley’s wife and Crooks to teach the reader that people who possess less power are treated in a more demeaning fashion, but also treat others the same way in search of gaining power.

Discrimination plays a big role in Of Mice and Men, since it takes place during the Great Depression. Racial segregation, gender rights, and handicap vulnerability are all problems in Of Mice and Men that reflect the society at the time. Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Candy are discriminated against on the ranch just like they would be in society.

Discrimination have been happening everywhere in the world and as long as anyone can remember. Discrimination is still a problem today. America just had protests dealing with Black Lives Matter and African Americans feel they are still discriminated against and treated differently. The time that the novel Of Mice and Men takes place in is important because during the Great Depression it was hard to find money, so Lennie couldn’t just stay at home while George had to work. They both had to make money to support themselves. Lennie, Crooks, and Curley's wife all face discrimination which greatly impacts their lives.

Even though how they use to treat them back then when the story was written,the discrimination of the theme throughout the book,because it illustrated the injustice inflicted upon the moment in the story the discrimination of people with mental and physical disabilities. To prove the discrimination is that some of them have either one hand or a bad back that can't be fixed. Curley's wife is not to do anything because she is married to curley the boss's son that she can only talk to. So there are some examples of the discrimination in the book.

“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty,” said Mother Teresa. Humanity has struggled against being left alone and being lonely for a long time. As a result, humans formed a society where they could be together. On the other hand, there are still people who are left out of the society. In other words, there are still people out there who are marginalized, not accepted fairly to the society. John Steinbeck shows the marginalized people’s lives in his novel, Of Mice and Men. In his novel, characters such as Lennie, George, Candy, Curley’s wife, Crooks, and even the ranch workers, are marginalized from the society. Ranch workers like George, Candy, and Lennie have nowhere to go, and they do not have anybody to care for them. Especially for Lennie, he is mentally challenged, too. Crooks, being the colored man, suffers from discrimination. Curley’s wife is constantly surrounded with loneliness. In Of Mice and Men, marginalized people who are neglected from the society, create a society of their own; they share their dreams and help each other out although they are all different from each other.

How is a woman in an era dominated by men expected to gain attention? Steinbeck wrote the novel titled Of Mice and Men emphasising the male society while displaying American dreams crushed throughout the novel. Whereas, minimal wiggle room for Curley’s wife expands upon her husband’s father’s farm because of its majority being men and her being the inferior sex. Her image demonstrates a sexual figure towards the male workers when Lennie and George saw her for the first time as stated, “She had full, rough lips and widespread eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails red and her hair hung in curls with a cotton house dress,” whereas red usually provokes people as an attention seeking color from its vividness bringing along attention to her hands

John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.

All humans are different. We have different skin colors, not everyone is the same sex. That is what make us human. These differences are what bring us together, but they can tear us apart. Humans can be plain and simply cruel to one another. John Steinbeck shows us how us as humans can be cruel and our cruelties of the past that still live one to today. He brings to light that people who stand out or are mistreated to say the least. Humans were cruel in the past and they’ll always be cruel. It’s just human nature.

Throughout the years, sexism has had a tremendous impact on women. Women in the 1920’s, and even before, were known as a man's possession, because they were considered the “weaker” sex. People, mostly men, had an idea of how women should be and how they should act, they were not allowed to work, be free, and in some cases not to talk or even look at other men, without being called a cruel name. In the book, Of Mice of Men, a character who is known as Curley's wife is the only woman on their farm and is secluded from everybody, with the exception of her husband, Curley. She was one of the many ladies who were mistreated all around the world during this time. Curly has taken ownership of her life and does not give her the option of doing what she wants or needs. Sexism has been an issue throughout every woman's life, including our character in the story, who has been struggling to get attention from someone who is willing to give it. It is clear that Curley’s wife is a victim of sexism, which would have shaped her into the woman she would have become.

The stench of farm animals was strong in the tiny windowless room. Unlike the noisy bunk house, this room was dead silent. If someone were to walk past it they would not think that it were fit for a human. That was a scene from the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. This novel is based around the early nineteen hundreds on a farm in California. In this story George and Lennie are two men who try to find work, enough work to get their own land. The only problem with this is that Lennie is mentally handicapped and can’t keep a job. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, discrimination is shown by sexism towards the Woman, racism towards Crooks, and hatred towards Lennie because he’s mentally handicapped.