Curley's Wife from Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

Curley's Wife from Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

'A girl standing there looking in. 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 and red mules.'

This is all that we picture of Curley's wife, without a name it shows

how she is thought of upon all the men on the ranch and how Steinbeck

feels about what person she is. I think Steinbeck's interpretation of

Curley's wife is that she is a very centered person but very heavily

made up and likes to look good and one of these reasons is because 1

of her dreams was that she wanted to become a film star and the only

reason she is actually on the ranch is because of her mum.

George and Lennie both have very mixed views on the character of

Curley's wife on 1 hand George thinks that she is a tramp 'Jesus, what

a tramp' and obviously doesn't think much of her and also feels she is

heavily made up only to try and get attention off the workers

Lennie on the other hand thinks she's 'purty' and really likes her but

being Lennie he likes anything playful.

My thoughts of Curley's wife are that she is a very nice and polite

person and almost doesn't mean to be the person she is made out to be.

Also I feel she must feel very alone being the only girl on the ranch

but in some ways I feel she does like this because this means she can

flirt with the men and almost do whatever she wants. I do feel sorry

for her in some ways though because she is very much bossed about by

Curley and he doesn't let her do anything and she is very restricted

to what she can and can't do, Curley gets really angry when he finds

out about her flirting with the other men and even confronts the other

men almost blaming them for what has happened.