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Of mice and men portrayal of curley's wife
How is curley's wife presented in the novel of mice and men
How is curley's wife presented in the novel of mice and men
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Curley is a small man when it comes to appearance and he's the son of the ranch boss. He comes across as being very short tempered and even developed something of an inferiority complex. As a result of this Curley is very agressive and almost everything concludes to violence when he's around, always brought on by himself. He was previouly a boxer but he clearly fights unfairly. Curley uses violence to emphasise his masculinity to both the other ranch hands and his wife, and take advantage of anybody who he thinks is weak, hence why the mentally-slow Lennie is his usual target. Curley took a strong dislike upon Lennie the moment that they met, simply because Lennie was bigger than him. Curley doesn't like feeling belittled so constantly feels the need to aggresively harm anybody whom he feels threatened by and almost control them, this quote said by Candy backs this up: "Curley's like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He's alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he's mad at 'em because he ain't a big guy." Another example of Curley's controlling ways is how he's ...
When someone doesn’t achieve their dreams , they feel insecure which makes them have hatred towards people that are happy. In chapter 3, Curley comes into the bunkhouse to look for his wife and because of this, the men in the bunkhouse start laughing and make fun of him. Lennie also starts laughing at the thought of his dream farm. Curley thought Lennie was laughing at him so he attacked him, “ Come on, ya big bastard. Get up on your feet. No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me. I’ll show you who’s yella. Lennie looked helplessly at George, and then he got up and tried to retreat”(62). Curley is insecure about his small size because that ruined his dream of becoming a boxer. When he walks in the room to look for his wife, the men start laughing at him and he feels that they were making fun of his
The first description of Curley’s Wife states that she gives multiple ranch workers “the eye” despite being “married two weeks.” From this we can instantly deduce that she is somewhat of a “tart” however if we evaluate further this could explain that she is lonely and not content with her new husband. The fact that she is giving other ranch workers “the eye” despite being married makes us feel no sympathy for her and instantly portrays her as endeavouring and potentially dangerous, although, on the other hand we can understand her restriction by Curley which makes us feel sympathy.
Curley engages in these fights for what appears to be the prospect of showing off to the other men and establishing superiority, but on a deeper level he is trying to use fighting, and always winning the fights in a sense, as a method of self-acceptance and his own satisfaction. He knows that even if he loses, the other men will know the loss was not due to his own weakness, but rather due to an unfair matchup, and therefore Curley is praised for even surviving the brawl. Because of this, whether Curley wins or loses the fight, he is able to feel fulfilled and is looked at as brave and powerful. This approval from others, allows Curley to approve of himself, if even for a few moments. Curley craves this approval from others, but primarily from himself because it curbs his insecurity which he tries to hide from the other men as best he can. Curley is also characterized as insecure about his masculinity when the men are talking about why he married his
Lennie is not so much stereotyped, but rather trapped because of his size. Because Lennie is so big, Curley thinks he has to prove something by beating up Lennie. Lennie gets on Curley’s bad side when he didn’t do anything wrong. Lennie is then forced to fight. " ‘I don’t want no trouble,’ he said plaintively.
Mr. Curley’s has a dream to be an important and to be a powerful factor on the ranch. Mr. Curley is greedy when it comes to possessing power over those who work on the ranch. An example of his arrogance would be when he tells Lennie, “Well, nex’ time you answer when you’re spoke too.” (Steinbeck 26). Mr. Curley talks condescendingly to the men on the ranch especially Lennie. Mr. Curley doesn’t feel like feeling in competition with other men when it comes to having power on the ranch. Curley might feel insecure about his size which is why “He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys.” (Steinbeck 26), Curley almost feels intimidated by the bigger men working for him by demonstrating his power that he holds over them. He
The moment that Curley's wife was introduced, an ill feeling overcomes the atmosphere indicating that Lennie will be getting into a mess with her. George states in the very beginning that he is always getting into mishaps, "You do bad things and I got to get you out," (p.11). The situation in Weed involved a girl and Curley's wife just happened to be the only girl on the ranch. Connecting ends with ends, there is a sense of insecurity between these two people. Later on, there was an intimation that she was going to be killed by Lennie because he killed the mouse and the puppy, leading to bigger deaths such as Curley's wife.
Curley thinks that Lennie is making fun of him when he laughs so Curley throws punches as lennie tries to explain that he wasn't laughing at him. Eventually after a couple blows Lennie crushes Curley's hand in his own. Curley refuses to listen to Lennie and again immediately goes straight to violence and attacking Lennie. Had he listened he could have avoided a crushed hand, being embarrassed and shamed because he always bragged about being a great boxer.
How does the reader’s perception of Curley’s Wife change through the book? In Of Mice and Men the reader’s opinion of Curley’s Wife changes throughout the book, in the beginning of the book the reader looks at her as trouble. Near the end the reader starts to feel sympathetic towards her. Although all the characters look at her as a “tramp”, despise, and avoid her, the reader sees her differently. The reader sees how miserable she is, and how many other things she has to put up with everyday. She might not be the nicest person out there, but she is still a person with feelings. The reader’s feelings drastically change from the beginning of the book to the end. She is perceived negatively repeatedly throughout the book, by all the characters at many different times. She is known as the “tramp” at the ranch, the reader would obviously think negatively of Curley’s Wife when all the characters are talking trash about her. In chapter 2 George said to Lennie “I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her. You leave her be.” After reading this how could the reader see Curley’s Wife in any other way. As the reader I also despised Curley’s Wife, I didn’t want her to get close to Lennie or George because I knew she would try and get them in trouble or something bad would happen with her being there. This quote specifies how almost every man felt on this ranch, and this was very early on in the book, George had not even had a decent conversation with her and he was already talking about her in this way. This was not only in the beginning of the book; at the scene of her death Candy was shouting “you got damn tramp” at her dead body. This shows even when she is dead, how little everyone cared about her. The r...
...ars for the fidelity of his wife as he believes there is a chance that Slim could be with her, despite his good nature. This makes the audience believe that Curley knows his wife is capable of anything, and that he would rather have her under his control. However, the poignant side to Curley’s Wife’s victimisation is when she is victimised due to the stereotypical image of women, either mother or prostitute. This adds a dark shadow over her complicated character, because the way she dresses, and the shoes she wears, especially at the ranch of all places, is unnatural. Also, her manipulative ways ironically cost her life, as she was probably toying with Lennie being mentally handicapped. Overall, I believe that the way that Curley’s Wife has cast her impression upon everyone, has eventually made her a victim of society, the ranch workers, and most importantly, herself.
In this essay I am going to examine whether Curley's wife is a tart or
“Then Curley’s rage exploded.Come on ya big bastard . Get up on your feet. No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me I’ll show ya who’s yella”.(62)Lennie was smiling and thinking about the ranch that George talked to him about and how they would make a living out of the farm. Also, he was thinking about how there would be bunnies that he could pet and feed.He was daydreaming in the worst moment. Curley thought that Lennie was smiling and laughing at him for having a “Glove fulla Vaseline”. This part of the dialogue also tells us that Curley gets frustrated or mad easily. THey say his rage exploded, he made a tiny situation into a major attention drawer. “Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys.He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys.”(26) The author describes Curley as a hatred person.He gets the wrong intention.Curley according to the passage liked to pick on others and knowing that Lennie was a sensitive fella he took advantage of that. He had fun doing this but Lennie did not get any positive output of this only negative outcomes. Curley wanted to start a fight just because he thought Lennie was laughing at him when he
Curley is a small man who is the boss’s son and has a Napoleon complex and he tries to act larger than he is. He’s insecure around men that are more macho and bigger than him and is known to give men bigger than him grief. “He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he’s mad at ‘em because he ain’t a big guy.
Curley makes sure his wife doesn’t talk to anyone. She is a victim of herself because she married a man that she hardly even knew. She married him though, to have a companion. She killed herself and Lennie because of her need for companionship. She craves companionship because she is an attractive woman with a need for interaction.
...mass of emotions between the men, the conflict of killing Lennie. And Curley finally showed some caring emotion “I know who done it.” “That big son-of-a-bitch done it” Is when he begins to show the love for his wife. Curley talks about going to kill Lennie, which shows that his wife may have been a big part of his life a nothing is going to replace her.
Often people treat him poorly because he is always with George. Everyone there, including george at some points in the book get angry about how stupid they think he can be. “God a’mighty, if i was alone i could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble.” (1.4) He often get’s mad at Lennie because he always forgets things and always gets them into trouble, and he often gets treated like this by everyone around him. Curley’s wife also treats Lennie poorly, but when she began to feel lonely, she went to Lennie to talk to him.