Women have always been treated cruel. Even in the darkest times. In John
Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife was unnamed and seen as a walking
figure with no emotions. During the Great Depression women were expected to
have the meals ready, the house cleaned, and look presentable for when their
husbands arrived from work as though they were machines manufactured to please
men. John Steinbeck seems to suggest that women in the 1930’s were trapped by
society. Steinbeck alludes that Curley’s wife can’t leave the ranch, her husband
controls here, and the men treat her like an object.
There are many ways the author writes Curley’s wife being prohibited from
leaving the ranch. On page 77 Curley’s wife confronts Crooks about how she is not
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giving any trouble to him.
“Well, I ain’t giving you no trouble. Think I don’t like
to talk to somebody ever’ once in awhile? Think I like to stick in that house alla
time?” This quotation shows how she is forced to stay home. She questions Candy,
Crooks, and Lennie asking them if they think she enjoys staying at the ranch all the
time. “Sat’day night. Ever’body out doin’ som’pin’. Ever’body! An’ what am I
doin’? Standin here talkin’ to a bunch of bindle stiffs---a nigger an’ a dum-dum
and a lousy ol’ sheep---an’ likin’ it because they ain’t nobody else” During page
78, Curley’s wife uses a much more aggressive tone. She is jealous that while
everybody is out doing something, she is stuck talking to three guys. Page 87. “
Don’t you worry none. He was jus’ a mutt. You can get another one easy. The
whole country is fulla mutts. This quote shows that Curley's wife is not informed
about what lies outside of the ranch. She assumes that the country is filled with
dogs, even though she hasn’t left the house in a while. Which proves my thesis
because Curley's wife is not allowed to leave the
ranch. We can see that Curley controls his wife through a quote and details from the text. On page 87 Curley’s wife explains why he isn’t allowed to talk to any of the workers. “ You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody” Throughout page 89 Curly’s wife reveals to Lennie that she dislikes Curley and that he is not a nice fella. The author wrote this part as though Curley's wife is a afraid of what he maybe be willing to do to her. On page 27 Candy tells George that Curley has a glove on full of vaseline, keeping his hand soft for his wife. The way Curley goes around telling people about what he does with his wife shows that he has no respect for wife and she has no saying in what he might tell others. The workers of the ranch treat Curley’s wife like she an object. Mostly through George and some of Lennie’s point of view and quotes from the book.. Page 32, Lennie calls Curley’s wife purty. George agrees with him and adds that she is not hiding it. Both Lennie and George say anything about Curley’s wife as if she is nothing, or has no feelings. Also on page 32 George calls out Curley’s wife. “Don’t you even take a look at that bitch. I don’t care what she says and what she does. I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her. You leave her be.” George concludes that she is trouble for both him and Lennie. Finally, towards the end of page 32, George says “Well, you keep away from her, ‘cause she’s a rattrap if I ever seen one. You let Curley take the rap. He let himself in for it. Glove fulla Vaseline,” George tells Lennie to stay away from Curley’s wife because of the danger Curley is capable of doing to them. In final consideration, women were treated horribly in the 1930’s and still are to this day. This discrimination will most likely never end because of humanity and its upcoming generation. Even though Curley’s wife never meant any harm to the workers, she was still disrespected for being a women back then. She was called names and humiliated from the workers and husband. Still, we will always exclude one another from being equal. No matter how hard, we try we will most likely fail.
Comment on how the character of Curley’s wife is portrayed in Sinise’s. 1992 television film version of "The Thriller" How is this characterization different? to that of the original novel by Steinbeck? Introduction The “Of mice and men” by Steinbeck was written in the 1930’s during the period. great depression Era which came about as a result of the Wall Street crash.
Curley’s Wife in ‘Of Mice and Men’ is used cleverly by Steinbeck to create sympathy amid the reader but also to represent the position of women in 1930s America. Through an intelligently designed pattern of events in the book, we feel varying amounts of sympathy for Curley’s Wife and thus unconsciously acquire information regarding the issues women had to face in the 1930s. In this essay I will evaluate the extent that Steinbeck presents Curley’s Wife as a sympathetic character and its relation to 1930s America.
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...
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...
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.
The novel Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, contains many characters that would significantly change the plot if they were not there to be in it. One of these characters is Curley. Curley is a minor character who plays a large role. He is like the bully of the story and is the cause of many of the events that take place on the ranch. There are multiple ways that the story would change if Curley was non-existent.
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.
- Lord Chesterfield once said, "You must look into people, as well as at them." If you apply this logic to Curley's wife and Crooks in the book, Of Mice and Men, you will find that they are the same in many ways despite their differences in race and sex. These two unfortunate souls live in a world full of shattered dreams, discrimination, and loneliness.
“Lyin', cheatin', hurtin, that's all you seem to do. Messin' around with every guy in town, always the same, playin' your game. Drive me insane, trouble is gonna come to you, One of these days and it won't be long,” -Your Time Is Gonna Come, Led Zeppelin. These lyrics conjure up images of a most sinful woman, the epitome of immorality; a liar, cheater, a maleficent wrench. When one applies these lyrics to the cast of Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, they resonate clearly with only one character- Curley's wife. Thanks to her toxic conversation and self absorbed personality, Curley’s wife is easily the most despicable out of all the characters in Of Mice and Men.
“I never seen no piece of jail-bait worse than her” (George) what is the reader supposed to think about Curley’s wife?
“In and out of dreams as thin as acetate.” She visualizes herself getting the horses out, but they “wrench free, wheel, dash back”. In “Family Reunion”, she writes that “nothing is cost efficient here”. Vegetables are grown on the farm, and animals are raised to be killed. “The electric fence ticks like the slow heart of something we fed and bedded for a year, then killed with kindness one bullet and paid Jake Mott to do the butchering.” “Waiting for the End in New Smyrna Beach, Florida”, Maxine Kumin notices in her venture in Florida a homeless couple with a baby.
over him. 1this entire incident shows how Crooks wants his loneliness to end. As Lennie entered Crooks room he
Curley is characterized as egotistic in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Upon arriving at the ranch for their new occupations, George and Lennie are introduced to their new homes by an experienced worker there. Interrupting their conversation at a bunkhouse, a man named Curley enters and immediately verbally targets Lennie, despite this being his first time meeting him. After Curley leaves, the old man explains that Curley is boss of the ranch’s son, and has a history with larger-sized people due to being a lightweight fighter: “‘Well...tell you what. 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’” (Steinbeck 26). The old man elaborates that Curley has an ongoing grudge on people bigger than him since they can usually defeat him in a fight due to his smaller stature.
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty-Mother Teresa.”(Brainyquotes.com). Curley’s wife is seen only three times in the whole novel. For example, when all the men went to town, including her husband. John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, displays many themes throughout the story- mainly loneliness. She is seen in only three parts of the story; the first time she is seen is when she runs into the cabin “looking” for Curly, the second time she was “looking” for Curly again and ran into George and Lennie, the last time she was seen was when she walked into the barn and was talking to Lennie.
Women used to be, and still commonly are, judged, underestimated, and struggling to gain the equal rights that men have. Sexism is the act of discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex or gender, as in restricted job opportunities, especially such discrimination directed against women. Sexism was very popular in the 1930s; women were unemployed and expected to clean the house and cook dinners. In Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife is a victim of sexism and it is shown many times in the story. There are many reasons to show how Curley’s wife is treated unfairly such as how the ranchers do not talk to her, she is treated as an object, and Curley does not want her out of the house.