Of Mice And Men Curley's Wife Character Analysis

Have you noticed that many parents tell their children to dream big and strive to meet their goals? When you are a girl, however, your big dreams become harder to reach, especially in the work field. In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the main characters named Lennie and George work on a ranch for Curley's family. When Curley's wife strikes up a conversation with Lennie, she tells him,"'...I met a guy, an' he was in pitchers...he says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon's he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it...i never got the letter...'" (Steinbeck 88). Curley's wife's ideal career was to become a movie star. She believed she could have been famous for her spectacular acting skills because a man told her that he could have made her into a star, but he never showed up after their first encounter. At the time, if women did not have an occupation, it was very difficult to make a living and survive without marrying a man, thus causing Curley’s wife to marry Curley. However, Curley’s wife regrets the marriage as she says, “‘ I tell you I ain’t used to livin’ like this. I coulda made somethin’ of myself…’” (88). Curley’s wife feels that she had the potential to reach her dreams, but solely relying on the man’s return to ignite her career did not benefit her in any way.
On the other

hand, an 18-year-old woman named Malala Yousafzai fought to make her dreams come true, and grant the rest of the female population of her Pakistani village rights to education, even though a terrorist group was against gender equality. Malala is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (in 2014) who battled for women’s education in Swat Valley, where she was raised. As she grew up, she noticed that women did not receive the same education as the men did in her native town. Malala spoke freely about her opinions about women’s rights to education, but at the young age of fifteen, a terrorist group called the Taliban surrounded her on her school bus and shot her, resulting in her brief encounter with death.
Luckily, she was rushed to safety and gradually recovered from the traumatizing event.

The shooting did not intimidate Malala, and she continued to advocate women’s rights to education all over the world. In her speech to the United Nations, she declared, “The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear, and hopelessness died. Strength, power, and courage were born,” (https://secure.aworldatschool.org). Achieving her goal was not an easy task, for the Taliban became a major blockade in her path, but she persevered and ultimately reached her

goal.
Women who want to pursue their dream careers usually crash head first into something called the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is not a physical object, but rather an abstract idea. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, it defines the glass ceiling as an unjust system where women or minorities that prevent these people from obtaining management positions (www.merriam-webster.com). For instance, when women want to get promoted to higher positions in most fields of work, it is harder because many males usually occupy these positions. In a website article, it states, “Women and minorities make up two-thirds of the population and 57 percent of the workforce yet account for only 3 percent of senior management positions at Fortune 1000 industrial corporations, according to a report released by the bipartisan Federal Glass Ceiling Commission,” (http://www.civilrights.org). This means that even though there are almost as many women as there are men, the males make up the majority of leadership positions.