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Symbolism in Of Mice and Men
How did Steinbeck develop the characters in mice and men
Curley’s wife from beginning to end of the novel
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Recommended: Symbolism in Of Mice and Men
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck has Curley’s wife plays a big role. Her role is to be a catalyst and represents role of women during her time period, in the 1930s. This is visible as Curley's wife changes the scene immediately when she shows up. By changing the scene I mean she changes other people’s expressions, the looks on their faces and also changes what was meant to happen but did not eventually happen. And Curley's wife changes the scene because she either seeks attention or makes others weaker than her. But her actions do have some consequences. For example her own death and the death of the dreams of every other ranch worker, except for Curley’s dreams. I also found that she acts like her husband.
The first time we see Curley’s wife seek attention occurs when George and Lennie are settling in the bunkhouse. Curley’s wife does this because she wants their attention from the beginning. She already has gotten Lennie’s attention because he keeps on repeating “she purty”, however George managed to resist the temptatio. Often times, Steinbeck also shows that Curley's wife tries to get attention when she wears nice clothes. For example when Curley's wife wore a red dress to get Lennie’s attention because Lennie likes to pet soft things. Curley's wife does this so that she can live the life of an actress. Since being an actress is her dream, Curley's wife was telling Lennie that she “coulda been in the pitchers”. That is also why she wears nice clothes. But sadly her dream was not fulfilled because the letter that was supposed to invite her to the set was never sent to her. So instead of having a nice life Curley's wife is a rancher’s wife.
However Curley’s wife does not always seek attention. She also makes herself ...
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...se she wanted to escape from her mother, who she believed stole the mail the actor meant to send to her. Steinbeck’s story takes place during The Great Depression, 1930s, and all of his characters represent a particular facet of life during that era.
In conclusion the role of Curley’s wife is to be a catalyst meaning that the scene immediately changes whenever she shows up. She changes the scenes by interrupting the ranch workers while they are having a conversation, which annoys them. She also made other ranch workers weaker by making herself appear stronger than them. However her actions have a huge consequence, which is her death. Not only her death but also the death of the dreams of the other ranch workers, which was not he fault. Even though it was not that evident, Curley’s wife did act a bit like Curley when she was alive, however they don’t like each other.
All through the book Curley’s Wife is very “open” to everyone she meets. The reason for this can be interpreted by her and Curley’s “so-called” marriage. The relationship between Curley’s Wife and Curley seems to be somewhat unstable as he is always asking “Any you guys seen my wife?” (pg. ). This also shows how protective Curley seems to be as he is always checking up on where his wife is. Curley’s insecurity seems to cage in his wife from having any kind of a friendship with any other men. In turn, the wife gets so sick of being isolated like this and relieves her loneliness by conducting secret conversations with many other men on the ranch. As a result many of the ranch hands see her as a tramp but it can be viewed that all she really wants is a person to talk to.
She flirts with the other characters on the ranch but they pay her no attention either. This essay will go on to look at the character of Curley's wife and how characters perceive her. When first introduced to Curley's wife in the novel she comes into the bunkhouse, when both Lennie and George are in there. She is apparently looking for Curly but she already knows that new men have arrived.
Steinbeck is very successful in creating sympathy throughout her character change and he presents her in this way to prove that the majority of women went through similar situations. This leads us to sympathise with all people society deems to be ‘inferior’ and we can even apply this lesson to today’s society.
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.
From this readers see that she had the chance to live a better life then what she has now. She could have lived her dream and been a movie star, but instead she had to settle for Curley. She has a complex past that allowed her to build up walls around her past and helps build her character into and interesting complex person: more so then in the beginning of the book. Readers seem to forget one thing about Curley’s wife: She’s a human too. Just like the other characters she has feelings and needs as indicated in an analysis of major
...r say anything. So she is stuck at a ranch where all the members there avoid her because she is trouble and can’t even run away because of her being a female in the early 1900’s made it almost impossible to survive on her own. She dresses a certain way to live out the American Dream the only way she can. She doesn’t dress that way to show off her body, she wants to feel like she is living her dream. She realizes that she is good looking and she uses that to her advantage to talk to some of the people at the ranch like Lennie. The only way she got to talk to Lennie was by letting him touch her hair. Steinbeck let Curley’s Wife die in such a peaceful way; I didn’t even realize she was dead until I read over the section multiple times. He left her there in the barn describing her beauty, showing the reader through Curley’s Wife that even the worst of us have humanity.
The character of Curley’s Wife is very hard to unravel, as throughout the book, Steinbeck’s representation of women through characters such as George and Candy, is very harsh. This is because the sociological opinion at that time was that they were either, mothers, sisters, or prostitutes, as the audience soon see, George and other ranch workers refer to her as “bitch” “loo loo” and “tramp”. There were also a growing number of prostitutes during the Great Depression period, as they would offload their services to those whom were able to pay and have some decent income during the Depression. Other aspects that may make Curley’s Wife seem like a tart, is Curley’s “Glove Fulla’ Vaseline”. Curley literally keeps a glove full of Vaseline, in order to keep his hand soft, possibly for a sexual act. Curley boasts to Candy that the hand is for his wife, which tells us that she gives him consent to do these acts to her, and also, Curley’s nerve to inform fellow workers about his glove shows that he believes that his own wife is a tart, which is very controversial today, but back then, women were seen as nothing more than possessions, yours to do what you will. George informs Lennie to avoid Curley’s Wife at all costs, and not to talk to her, because of her promiscuous behaviour, he believes t...
In this essay I am going to examine whether Curley's wife is a tart or
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?s wife spent her whole life trying to grab attention. She was always labeled and ignored by everyone on the ranch, an example of this is when George tells Lennie that she was troubled and to stay away from her. Curley?s wife was ignored and used from early on, when she was given false intentions on being a movie star.
The issue of sexism was still very present in 1930’s America compared to our present day now. Steinbeck uses Curley’s wife as the only female character in the novel because the ranch was no place for a women. He uses many different methods to portray the attitudes towards Curley’s wife and to belittle the importance of her.
Curley’s wife’s femininity may be seen as her greatest weakness or flaw to most, but she rapidly discovers that it is also her only weapon on the ranch and learns to use it to her advantage. Therefore, she puts up an alluring and sultry front in an attempt to receive attention, because she is aware that none of the men on the farm respect her because of her position as a woman. The men's blatant lack of respect for her belittles the miniscule amount of power she has acquired
Curley’s wife is a difficult character to understand. Steinbeck hasn’t named her; this could be for a number of reasons. He may have wanted her to be seen as lonely therefore not naming her shows no one gets close enough to her to call her by her first name. He may have done it to show the other characters only see her as the wife of Curley rather than an individual. He may also have done it to show the male attitudes towards females. Curley’s wife also helps to provoke mixed emotions in the reader. We often feel sorry for her such as when she talks of her loneliness, but on other occasions the reader can find her cold hearted. This is seen when she is racist towards the other characters.
The way Curley’s wife was treated changed the responsibility she had, the views of her, and being alone all the time. In life, women and those who are different aren’t seen as equal. They all have harder lives than the typical man does. Unfortunately, one of the characters who were different was outnumbered and was seen on a lower