Sexism In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

An orange fish is swimming in the ocean. You can tell it wants to go to the bottom, but it is can’t because it is orange, even though it is the same type of fish as all the others. That doesn't seem fair but that happens in our world today and in the book Of Mice and Men. In author John Steinbeck's book, Of Mice Of men, he promotes a message of how stereotypical behaviors and physical traits put everybody in a group when they are born. These groups are based on race, sex, time period, and abilities, which can result in good or bad judgment. These characteristics cannot be controlled, but will be how people look at you. If you do not fit into a perfect stereotype, then you might be restricted from what you can do because you are looked at as different. Everybody in this world today seems to judge someone as soon as they look at them. The same thing happens to all of us; when someone sees us, they judge us. Over the last few centuries, the stereotypes commonly conceived as “perfect” have not changed much, or even at all. The groups that have the most power and the least amount of restrictions in their daily lives have also stayed the same. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck explains the general stereotypes and how he believes certain groups can be judged and how they are treated differently.

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.

Toxic masculinity. It is a hidden concept that not many men know of yet many men have internalized. It is a socially-constructed attitude that describes the male gender as violent, unemotional, dominant, and sexually aggressive. Culturally accepted ideas of manliness lead men to believe that to “be a man” one must display these horrible attributes. John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men follows the dynamic duo that is George Milton and Lennie Small as they face the Great Depression and a new job. In his novel, Steinbeck seems to represent the idea of toxic masculinity through not only the ranch workers but George and Lennie themselves. Steinbeck shows that male stereotypes and false ideas of manhood not only exist in present-day but were also present during the 1930’s. Through Steinbeck’s depiction of certain men as aggressive and strong, he proves that toxic masculinity, gender roles, and the patriarchy can affect men negatively much more than they affect women.

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.

Curley’s Wife was a subject of Prejudice because she was a woman. During the 1930’s a woman’s place was to be at home raising a family, also women were seen as second class citizens and property of their husbands. Before we meet Curley’s Wife, the reader already has an opinion of her because of what the character Candy calls her- “jail bait”; George calls her a “tramp”. It’s implied that she is a tart and a promiscuous woman; she craves the attention her husband doesn’t give her.

“I never seen no piece of jail-bait worse than her” (George) what is the reader supposed to think about Curley’s wife?

Curley’s wife is treated with very little respect because of the small amount of power she has, which depicts Steinbeck’s lesson that people with less power are treated differently and then go on to treat others unequally, as well. Curley’s wife has a flirty reputation and often goes to talk to the men on the ranch even though she knows she shouldn't be. Shortly after Lennie and George are first introduced to Curley’s wife, George remarks, “Gosh, she was purty.” George is shocked and fiercely tells Lennie, “Don't you even take a look at that bitch. 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. You leave her be”(Steinbeck 32). Lennie’s initial reaction of Curley’s wife is not uncommon for the lack of intelligence he has. George’s fierce attitude toward Curley’s wife when he calls her

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.

The historical views of woman have set a common pattern that influences the expression of thought regarding gender. This is evident in the book “Of Mice and Men”, within the character of Curley’s Wife. She is the only woman on the ranch, it is described to us that she has a flirtatious attitude. They see her as someone who is a source of temptation and evil and give her no voice in the matter. It is shown that they see her as a source of desire and sin by trying their best to avoid her and evade conversations. George even goes to the extent of telling Lennie to stay away from her since she has the potential to create trouble. She has no voice in this and becomes extremely lonely. This is proven when she opens up her past to the new and mentally

‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.’ That line is a really funny saying we have all heard. The truth is that words hurt. So, do stereotypes. The book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, certainly explores characters that are different than what people make them out to be. In the time period, when this book is set, lots of racism, feminism, and not being that nice to people who were different, were very common in this time era. There are many character’s in the author’s book that were and are misjudged. Because, Lennie and Curley’s wife are not how others perceive them, John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men teaches readers not to judge a book by its cover.

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.

John Steinbeck’s highly acclaimed Of Mice and Men is a classic American novella that paints a depressingly realistic portrait of America during the Great Depression in the 1930s. In this short read, Steinbeck tackles many issues that plagued the country during that time. His purpose in writing Of Mice and Men was to criticize some of those issues, such as sexism, the poor treatment of people with mental disabilities, and the facade of the American Dream.

“The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In the book, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck there is many examples of stereotyping and labeling. George and Lennie are the two main characters of the book and they both are stereotyped. George watches and takes care of lennie, so he is labeled as a parent figure. On the other hand, Lennie is dependant on George so he is labeled as immature. However, there's much more to the characters than what they are labeled as. Even though the other characters in the book will learn more about George and Lennie throughout the story, they will forever be known for their stereotypes. Steinbeck shows that with stereotyping people look at the world with more judgement.

Additionally, the further adversity she experiences in the distrust and derogatory behaviour from the ranchers reinforces the sexist behaviour and patriarchal society of the 1930’s. She is described as a “tramp”, “a bitch”, “jail bait” and a “rat-trap” based on her flirtatious behaviour, which presumably originates from the loneliness and isolation she experiences in her unhappy marriage and life on the male-dominated ranch (32). The attitudes of the men towards her character only worsen the problems of isolation and loneliness, and creates a vicious cycle whereby Curley’s Wife seeks more attention and is degraded further for doing so, and ultimately this leads to her untimely demise in her search for companionship. Whilst her death was accidental, Curley’s Wife, as a symbol of female inequality, signifies the adversity faced by women during the Depression, and the difficulties they experienced in attempting to achieve their dreams. In today’s Western world, feminist issues remain, albeit on a far lesser scale than 80 years prior - however, in some parts of the world, little progress for women’s rights has been made and the issues experienced by Curley’s Wife are a reality for some.

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