Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Literature identity theme
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
There are many characters in Of Mice And Men but one that really stuck out to me was Curley. Curley is a small guy who is very temperamental and doesn't really care for the character Lenny. He doesn't really like Lenny for a couple reason three being that lennie is big and curly is small this makes curley jealous of lenny and angry. Another reason curley hates lenny is that lennie broke curley's arm. The third reason is that Lennie killed curley's wife and now he wants him lynched. Curley is an all around mean guy but he really hates lenny and even wants to kill him. Curley is small he is thin and has a brown face and is always picking fights with guys bigger than he is. This makes him feel jealous and he feels the need to fight lennie
In John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrays Curley’s wife as a flirtatious, mischievous, and over all isolated woman. Steinbeck doesn’t give this character a name, yet she is one of the most important characters in the story. Curley’s wife first comes off as flirtatious to the main characters, George and Lenny, when they first hear about her from the character Candy . Candy is talking about how she gives men “the eye”. He also displays his feelings about her by saying, “Well, I think Curley’s married… a tart”(28). This is setting George and Lenny up to expect she is a flirt.. Steinbeck describes Curley’s wife in her first introduction as a scantily dressed woman.. Steinbeck writes, “Both men [George and Lenny] glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in. She had full, roughed lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled cluster, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers”(31). The color red is sometimes considered for portraying a sign of danger or sex. This passage supports Curley’s wife as being flirtatious and also how she’s dangerous and can cause trouble displaying herself while she is married. Also, when George and Lenny are talking to Curley’s wife she tries to flirtatiously talk to them too. After their first conversation she re-adjusts herself. Steinbeck displays her with “She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward”(31). Steinbeck is explaining to the reader in detail that Curley’s wife is trying to show herself to Lenny and George to get thei...
“Nobody’d listen to us” (81) exclaims Crooks when talking about being ignored. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck illustrates the characters Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Candy experiencing loneliness and isolation while living on the ranch. These characters attempt to socialize, succeeding and failing. Loneliness and isolation of the characters results in yelling, bullying, and even a broken neck.
In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, Curley’s insecure character is shown through what other characters say about him. One instance in which Curley’s insecure disposition is shown is when the other men are talking about him after he verbally attacks Lennie. When George demands to know why Curley disrespected Lennie, one of the other men responds saying Curley tends to pick fights with big guys like Lennie and furthermore explains, “Kind of like he’s mad at ‘em because he ain’t a big guy” (26). A great deal of Curley’s insecurity stems from his size. Despite superficial efforts to make himself appear bigger, Curley knows he will never amount to the size and strength of the other men on the ranch. To compensate for his size, he often times tries to prove himself through fighting.
Curley's wife, an accident that seals his own fate and destroys not only his dreams but George's and Candy's as well. In the beginning Lennie used to pet mice that his Aunt Clara used to give him, he would always end up killing them because he didn't know his own strength. Lennie never killed any pet or person purposely; he pets too roughly and kills them accidentally. An example of his rough tendencies is in the first chapter (page7) when Lennie wants to keep a dead mouse and George wouldn't let him Lennie says" Uh-uh. Jus' a dead mouse, George.
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.
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.
Life is full of choices: where to go to school, where to live, who to marry, and what jobs to apply for, and most of the time each of us control what happens with these choices. What if those choices brought someone to the point of being trapped and feeling helpless? In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck the wife of Curley is in just that spot. She made the choice to marry a tyrant of a man and is now forced to live with the consequences of her decisions. Curley’s Wife is misunderstood due to the workers’ assumptions, Curley’s relationship with her, and her unclear background.
Due to child like qualities, Lennie is a person which would be easy prey and a vulnerable person. Lennie is a vulnerable person who is quite dumb. His has an obsession for touching soft thing and this will often lead him in to trouble. But poor Lennie is an innocent person who means no harm to anybody. When he and Curley get into a fight Lennie is too shocked to do any thing. He tries to be innocent but, when told to by George grabs Curley’s fist and crushes it. George is Lennie’s best friend and Lennie does every thing he tells him to do as demonstrated in the fight with “But you tol...
In Of Mice & Men, the character Curley’s Wife is depicted as flirtatious, promiscuous, and insensitive. However, her husband Curley sees her as only a possession. Most of the workers at the ranch see her as a tart, whereas Slim, the peaceful and god-like figure out of all the men, see her as lonely. This answer will tell us to which extent, is Curley’s wife a victim, whether towards her flirtatious behaviour, or to everyone’s representation of her.
Curley's wife is seen as a cheap possession, a toy that belongs to Curley. A possession that he gets to control. His lack of love, respect and attention results to her death in the end. By all the men she’s seen as a tramp, they think that she’s out cause trouble. But the truth is she’s desperately lonely. She just wants someone to talk to. She’s missed out on a wonderful life that could have been hers, and that hurts her.
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.
Curley’s weakness is that he is trying to prove himself physically because he lacks self-confidence. Here, the author has to convince the audience that Curley is not a good man. He picks fights especially with guys who are bigger than him to prove his masculinity and to make people obey him. His strength comes in the physical form, lightweight fighting. For instance, even Candy said, “He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys.” (26) Curley could be jealous of how tall Lennie is as opposed to his short height. Did Steinbeck purposely say this to make Curley seem weak? Therefore, Curley’s standing up to Lennie shows his desire to have a higher status than him even though he is much smaller.
Curley is an insecure man, and that shows in his characterization. He is shown as being physically very small, and constantly brags about his expertise with women to all the men on the ranch. However, he is always worrying about where his wife is and who she