Of Mice and Men was published by John Steinbeck in 1937. The novella is set in Salinas, California during America’s Great Depression which lasted from the Wall Street Crash which began on October 1929 and lasted up to 12 years later when World War II began. The result of the Depression was a lack of secure jobs, which resulted in an increase in the number of travelling workers. The novella of Mice and Men tells us the story of George Milton and Lennie Small two displaced migrant labours that move from place to place for new work.
The characters in the novella are all forced into loneliness and isolation; they each have a dream In hope of a better life referred to at the time as ‘The American Dream’. Lennie and George both dream of working
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Curley’s wife is introduced at the beginning and causes the end of the novella as she is killed at Lennie’s hands. Her death causes the end of George and Lennie’s dream. Curley’s wife is described as a terrible and a wicked woman, who is seen with a sexual image. Steinbeck also makes the reader feel sympathy for her as the men in the ranch see her with a person who has no feelings. Curley’s wife is trapped in an unsuccessful marriage to Curley; her husband is strict towards her and behaves as if though he has authority over her. Later on in the novella her reality is discovered and we are told by Steinbeck that she is also a victim of …show more content…
. . it ain’t even funny.” This shows that Curley’s wife knows her power and can accuse the men in the ranch, as they all fear a beating from her husband Curley. “Sure I got a husban.” . . . swell guy, ain’t he? - This quote is displaying sarcasm as it is being used here. Curley’s wife is unhappily married and despite that she is saying that her husband is fantastic when he is described as a cruel and aggressive man. "I ain't used to livin like this. “I get awful lonely”. This quote shows the reader that Curley’s wife has lost potential and her shattered dream of being actress caused her to marry Curley. It also illustrates to us that she is lonely and isolated. “Her body flopped like a fish.” Steinbeck uses a simile to describe Curley’s wife when she is in the state of death. This is showing the reader that Steinbeck is using a simile and is comparing Curley’s wife to a fish like Curley was, when Lennie crushed his hand. “The meanness and the planning’s and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face” . . . “Sweet and young”. In this quote
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.
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...
Curley’s wife represents her broken dreams of becoming an actress. Lennie and George represent a dream in progress, it is uncertain if their plans will work out as intended or plummet before takeoff, even Crooks and Candy see the appeal in Lennie and George’s fantasy and join them. The dream in progress gives hope to Lennie and George and continued to even after losing previous jobs. Curley’s wife is constantly restricted, she married Curley so that she would no longer be alone but now is in the same state as before, just on a ranch of men. She tries to talk to the other men but she is then seen as "jail bait" and avoided, making her even lonelier. Her dream of being an actress has failed because she chose a quick way out and married Curley. She is now living in her failure and has no longer a dream to aim for. Perhaps the most important part of the story is the the part in which Lennie has accidentally killed the puppy given to him by Slim, and is grieving over him in the barn, “This ain’t no bad thing like I got to go hide in the brush. Oh! no. This ain’t. I’ll tell George I foun’ it dead.” He unburied the puppy and inspected it, and he stroked it from ears to tail. He went on sorrowfully, “But he’ll know. George always knows. He’ll say, ‘You done it. Don’t try to put nothing over on me.’ An’ he’ll say, ‘Now jus’ for that you don’t get to tend no rabbits!” (Steinbeck, 85) He feels powerless to his own strength, he believes that he will never achieve his dream because of his mistake. George and the other men are out once again and the only person who comes to his emotional aid is none other than Curley’s wife. “Don’t you worry about talkin’ to me. Listen to the guys yell out there. They got four dollars bet in that tenement. None of them ain’t gonna leave till it’s over.” “If George sees me talkin’ to you he’ll give me hell,” Lennie said cautiously.” (Steinbeck, 85) He
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.
Most of Steinbeck’s characters are stereotypical, or have some form of a stereotypical view towards them and Curley’s wife is no exception.
Steinbeck describes Curley's Wife as a very friendly young women. For example, when Steinbeck describes her when she says, “She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward” (31). When reading this, one can learn that Curley’s Wife is a very friendly women who is just looking for someone to talk to. She is forced to live on the farm and needs to find something to do, or someone to talk to while she is stuck there.
John Stienback presents Curley’s wife at the start of the novel as an irrelevant character, while her husband is quite an important character. However as the story goes on we start to see the importance of her character as everything relevant that happens on the ranch is due to her presence. She is symbolic of Eve- the female character who, in the Biblical story, brings sin and death to the world, but she is also there to symbolize women everywhere who are dominated in male-centered societies.
Of Mice and Men is a novel written by John Steinbeck. It is set in California during the great depression. The story follows two ranch hands who travel together and are very poor. Throughout the novel we witness many different philosophical references. Many different types of characters from this novel are reused in today’s society. Steinbeck also writes eloquently about the many different emotions, aspirations, and dreams of man.
At first, the reader is exposed to her flaws, all the things that cause her to be disliked by the men in the ranch. She is referred to with words such as ‘bitch’ and ‘tart’ before she’s introduced to the audience, which instantly causes the reader to attach negative connotations to her character. These are also aggressive and sexist terms used to describe Curley’s Wife who has little power. Conversely, in her final death scene, she is described as ‘pretty’ and ‘simple’ making the reader feel a sense of sympathy towards her and realise her actions as nothing more than desperate pleas for attention. The use of the adjectives ‘pretty’ and ‘simple’ suggest that Curley’s Wife is simply human. Like the men on the ranch; she’s pure and quite innocent. Steinbeck can be seen as a feminist as his intentions were very different from what we as readers might have thought. A modern reader might believe that Steinbeck was a misogynist, however his intentions were to make us emphasise with this woman who had such a difficult life due to the context and sex, and to make us look at these kind of women
Steinbeck suggests of death as opposed to sensuality by stating that Curley’s wife’s lips were ‘parted’ meaning she was pouting even though she has died so it is hard to tell if she is alive or dead but has lost all her character’s traits. Though Curley’s wife was portrayed badly by some of the men at the ranch, Steinbeck could be targeting Curley’s wife as all the women in the novella are either presented as motherly figure such as ‘Lennie’s Aunt Clara’ or a very sexual character like the women in brothel or Curley’s wife, this could purposely be showing the stereotypical figures to inform the men to treat women as their equals.
In conclusion I believe that Curley’s Wife is a very significant character in the novella because she represents the stereotypical woman and they way she acted, and was treated leads me to feel great sympathy for her despite her flirtatious demeanour. 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 deem to be ‘inferior’ and we can even apply this lesson to today’s society.
Steinbeck displays, Curley’s wife as more of an object to the men at the ranch. He conveys this idea through the description of her appearance. When Steinbeck introduces the reader and George and Lennie to Curley’s wife he takes a long time to describe her. “She had full rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her finger nails were red “. This quotation suggests that Curley’s wife is an object to men in society and that she is as worth as much as she is wearing. Not only does Steinbeck describe her appearance he also describes her actions when on the ranch and talking to the men. He does this to show the awareness that the men have towards her. “She puts her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward”. A lot of the men on the ranch try to ignore and do not want to start a conversation with her but through Steinbeck’s description of her actions the reader can see that she craves attention from the men on the
Curley’s wife is an outsider on the ranch, simply because she is the one. only woman there is. Steinbeck never named Curley’s wife. She is defined by her relationship with Curley, as his property, not as an individual. Namelessness also has the effect of reinforcing how insignificant she is in the life of the ranch, how dependent she is on Curley, for her.
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...