Cruelty In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

“Well, I think Curley’s married…a tart…I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her…she’s a rat trap if I ever seen one” (Steinbeck 32). If people said those things to and about you every day, you’d say life was cruel, right? Cruelty is everywhere in John Steinbeck’s 1937 novel Of Mice and Men. The story details a few days in the lives of two Depression-era men. When Lennie Small, a bumbling giant of a man with the mind of a child, gets him and his companion George Milton kicked out of another job, they start work at a ranch in California. The whole time, the two make it a goal to work hard and make enough money to buy a house and plot of land to live at instead of a ranch with a dozen other workers. While there, the two meet an interesting

She talks occasionally about how tyrannical her mother acted and how she never let her live her life, so she fantasized about leaving her and her hometown behind. An example of how her mother frustrated her as a child is when she was invited to be part of a show, but “my ol’ lady wouldn’ let me” (Steinbeck 88) even though it was the opportunity of a lifetime to her. She even tells Lennie about what drove her away once and for all when they are talking in the barn, just before she dies. Curley’s wife says, “I always thought my old lady stole [a letter]. Well, I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make something of myself, an’ where they stole your letters. I ast her if she stole it too, an’ she says no” (Steinbeck 88). By saying she couldn’t live somewhere where her dreams couldn’t come true, Curley’s wife exemplified the theme. Just a little bit later in the story, she gives another example of how much she dreamt of escaping her mother: “So I married Curley. Met him out to the Riverside Dance Palace that same night” (Steinbeck 88). The night she ran away from her mother, Curley’s wife met Curley and married him in a hurry, all to further the process of leaving behind everything about her old

Whenever she is talking about her dream of becoming a movie star, or trying to reach her goal of having a friendship with one of the ranch workers, she is at her best. She is kind, she laughs, and she is enjoying the company of another person. She even mentions how she enjoys conversing with the ranch workers when they aren’t excluding her: “Funny thing…if I catch any one man, and he’s alone, I get along fine with him” (Steinbeck 77). Curley’s wife, like any person, enjoys getting along with people she’s around. However, it means a little more to her than most, because she is constantly ignored and looked down upon by the men. When she is alone with someone, this time with Lennie, she even jokes around a little bit, as seen when Steinbeck writes, “She looked up at Lennie, and made a small grand gesture with her arm to show that she could act. The fingers trailed after her leading wrist, and her little finger stuck out grandly from the rest” (Steinbeck 89). It’s a small gesture, but it shows she enjoys being around others and that thinking about the dream that could have been has a positive effect on her. Dreaming makes her a delightful person to talk to and be around, despite what other people