More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender discrimination against women
Stereotypes in the book mice and men
Gender discrimination against women
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Gender discrimination against women
To begin, one character that faced discrimination in Of Mice And Men is Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife, the wife of Curly who is the son of the owner of the farm, is the only woman on the farm. She is constantly called names by the men on the farm because of the way she acts around them and is always mistreated and misjudged by them. Candy, an old man that works on the farm says, “‘Purty...but-...she got the eye. Well, I think Curley’s married...a tart’” (Steinbeck 28). This quote shows that Curley’s wife is a disloyal wife because men in the farm keep calling her a tart and that she gives them the eye. This quote also shows how Curley’s wife is property because they don’t call by her real name but only label her as “Curley’s wife.” It highlights
1) Talk about the life Janie and Tea Cake live in bean-picking, swamp country and contrast it with Janie's life in Eatonville. What is Janie's attitude to the contrast?
“Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody.” (Steinbeck, 86). In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife is an outcast compared to the men. Being female, she cannot do what the men can. This novel was based in the 1920’s, a time where women weren’t allowed to do certain, almost all, things. She was not allowed to talk to anyone because she was seen as a threat. Her treatment was caused by how men viewed her. This all affected her responsibility, the views of her as a woman, and her loneliness.
Mark Twain best described courage when he said that, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear” (Twain). Both in The One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey and Watership Down by Richard Adams, the authors deal with the topic of courage and each share a similar view on it as this quote. Indeed, both authors suggest that courage is not accumulated simply by acts of heroism, but rather by overcoming fears and speaking one’s mind as well. These books are very similar in the way that bravery is displayed through the characters in an uncommon way. Firstly, an example of bravery
In today’s society people are constantly judged, and a lot of the time this judgment is completely wrong. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife is called a flirt and a “tart” (Steinbeck 28), but she is more than that. She is lonely and just wants someone to talk to, but that gets portrayed as something it is not. Curley’s wife is a woman who has been misjudged by everyone on the ranch. Through misunderstandings she is given a bad reputation, but this perception of her is completely wrong.
In the novel Of Mice and Men Steinbeck creates a character which is different from the rest of them, on which the reader might have a strong opinion about, differing from beginning to end. Curley´s wife switches from being classified as an antagonist of the novel, to just a fragile women with a hopeless dream.
In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, published in 1937, many characters are depicted as having a turbulent and continuously changing relationship with power. In the case of Curley’s wife, her power, or lack thereof, derives from her status of being the only woman on the ranch during a time when females were viewed as being inferior and subordinate to men. In some instances, Curley’s wife uses her femininity to her advantage to flirt with the various men on the ranch and obtain information from them. She is aware of her beauty and the control over men this gives her and she realizes that a seductive attitude can be used to manipulate others. Although, ultimately, being a woman is her downfall. The men on the ranch ridicule her and dismiss
Curley’s wife expresses her suffering of loneliness and boredom to the men by asking for compassion. To Curley’s wife, loneliness means the lack of social interactions and conversations. Boredom means the repetitiveness of her daily life. She tries to explain her situation to the men by asking rhetorical questions about certain aspects of her life. Curly’s wife had just walked into the stable room to figure out where her husband is. She encounters Crooks, Candy, and Lennie who give her a difficult time when she tries to have a conversation with them. She is asking for compassion when she says, “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house all the time?” (77) The tone and wording of this suggests that she is asking a rhetorical question in an attempt to get the men to feel for her.
John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, shows the harmful effects of prejudice. Set on the California ranch during the Great Depression, the novel depicts characters who are discriminated against because of features that set them apart from other ranch workers. In particular, Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife are negatively affected by prejudice.
Scout does not heed Atticus’ advice in Chapter 4 of To Kill a Mockingbird, as she continues to express her biased hatred for Calpurnia, and also openly contradicts Jem, without considering the perspectives to which they are taking. As stated by Harper Lee, “...Calpurnia’s tyranny, unfairness, and meddling in my business had faded to gentle grumbling of general disapproval (45)”. This quote expresses the many ways Scout thinks of Calpurnia, a great many of which as terrible and controlling. This biased description of Calpurnia shows how Scout is still unable to understand why Calpurnia consistently disciplines her, and from what standpoint she is doing so. Also stated by Lee, “Jem stamped his foot. “Don’t you know you’re not suppose to even
CANDY : I will started with Candy. The basic characteristic is that he was very old man with one hand. „The doors opens with his left hand“. At the ranch he is sweeper,he was afraid of boss. and he is living with his lovely old dog, but not everybody was too tolerant for him so one of the character shoot him..Candy was really sad about the fact, that someone else shoot his dog . He was thinking that he is not usefull in the ranch so he decides to be with George and Lennie and with them dreaming about their own farm. Candy was every month giving them Money for becoming their dream true.
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.
Discrimination was one of the issues that caused conflict in the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. One example of discrimination in the novel comes in the form of racial discrimination against Crooks, as he is an African American. Another example of discrimination is gender discrimination against Curley’s wife. Finally, there is discrimination against mentally disabled people, which is evident in Lennie’s character. The ranch hands' actions and conversations demonstrated the racial discrimination against Crooks for his skin colour, gender discrimination against Curley’s wife for her gender, and prejudice against Lennie, who was mentally disabled individual. This prevented the characters from reaching their full potential and causes tragedy.
“He who wants everything everytime will lose everything, anytime”- Vikrant Parsai. This famous quote supports the theme of “Greed and materialism left unchecked, can lead to immoral behavior such as violence” in the book, The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Kino and Juana find the pearl of the world while Kino gets a little too obsessed with the pearl. Juana tries to hide it and make everything better, but everything backfires on her . Kino goes crazy about what Juana tries to do to help him and does things no one would ever imagine.With this in mind, all the readers will look at how greed is expressed through characters,and even Kino himself and symbolism.
First here is a quote about Curley’s wife that Candy said “ Well-got the eye” (Steinbeck 28). Curley’s wife is discriminated against because they’re saying that only into 2 weeks of marriage and she is already looking at other men. Referring to the “she got the eye” quote. Another quote about Curley’s wife that Candy said is “Well I think Curley married a tart” (Steinbeck 78). Candy is basically saying that Curley married a slut or tramp. She is being discriminated against just because she is lonely and want to be social and to get out of the house. Curley’s wife gets discriminated on a lot throughout the
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.