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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“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
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...
Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Candy are three characters who are constantly alone and feeling worthless. “Think I’m gonna stay in that two-by-four house and listen how Curley’s gonna lead” (78) Curley’s wife exclaims to Lennie, Crooks, and Candy. Constantly ignored by men, Curley’s wife acts overly nice and comes off as a flirty “rat-trap” (32). She
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 in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. ‘Of Mice and Men’ was originally a novel by John Steinback which was written in 1937. It was also made into a film in 1939, and then later. in 1992. It is a tale of the friendship between two men, George and Lennie, who has travelled to work on a ranch together and how their friendship is put to the test.
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.
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...
married to a man called Curley who has a lot of authority in the ranch
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.
“I never seen no piece of jail-bait worse than her” (George) what is the reader supposed to think about Curley’s wife?
“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.
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.
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.
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.
makes references back to the animals she cares for and comes in contact with on