We all feel lonely at times but what helps us not feel alone is the thought of being able to call up a friend or family member to be by your side. In Of Mice and Men Lennie and George have each other and can rely on each other when they need. Of Mice and Men takes place on a ranch in Soledad in California during the early 1930’s; that in itself can be lonely because there are only so many people on the ranch, eventually you are going to feel isolated and alone. African Americans and women still were perceived as lesser individuals when compared to a white male, therefore any women or African American would feel isolated and alone because people still judged them and hadn’t changed their viewpoint. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck he uses …show more content…
Curley’s wife feels extremely isolated which is why she acts flirtatiously to other men which ends up leaving her more isolated because the men avoid her so they won’t get beaten up. She’s lonely because she has no one else to relate to and she isolates herself further because she makes cruel remarks to others. Curley’s wife longs for company but when she tries to flirt with a man she exploits their weaknesses. When she was talking with Crooks she reminded him that he was a social inferior and an outcast instead of being friendly with him which made him not talk to her anymore furthering her isolation. “I get lonely, she said. You can talk to people but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like to not talk to nobody” (Steinbeck 43). This shows just how lonely Curley’s wife is she can’t talk to anybody but her husband and her husband doesn’t even really like her so they don’t ever really talk, she essentially only has herself to keep her company. Curley’s wife was so lonely that she wanted acceptance from Lennie “Take Curley. His hair is jus’ like wire. But mine is soft and fine. ‘Course I brush it a lot. That makes it fine. Here-feel right here” (Steinbeck 45). She was so desperate for attention that she let Lennie touch her hair because she was alone and she wanted his approval. Curley’s wife only wanted a friendship so that she could talk to someone about her problems, had she had a friend she wouldn’t have felt so isolated and
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...
Is it possible to achieve the “American dream?” In the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck the main characters Lennie and George to migrant workers dream of owning their own farm and not having to obey to anyone's orders except their own. They flee from Weed because of an incident with Lennie touching a girl's dress and accusing him of rape. They get a job at a ranch outside Weed buckin barley and meet an “old dog” named Candy. Candy and George get to talking and George tells Candy about their “Dream” and Candy says he can help them get the ranch if he gets to come with them. They decide to leave at the end of the mouth but Lennie kills Curley's wife by snapping her neck and George decides to kill Lennie so he doesn't die a slow and
‘Of Mice and Men’, a novel by John Steinbeck, tells a story of friendship, loneliness and aspirations. Two itinerants named George and Lennie go to work on a farm as labourers in a place named Soledad. The story then ends when George takes Lennie’s life. Almost everyone on the farm is lonely and the person that represents this the most is Curley’s (the boss’s son) wife, one of the most pivotal characters in the book. When Lennie and George arrive on the farm and are shown their quarters Curley’s wife, on one of her ‘looking for Curley’ routines, sees them both and immediately starts flirting with them. George gets angry when Lennie takes a shine to her and tell him to stay away and calls her a ‘bitch’ and a ‘rat-trap’ This view is also held by many of the workers on the farm. Curley instantly takes a dislike to Lennie when he firsts meets him just because he his much considerably larger that himself. This attitude towards Lennie results in him getting into a fight with him but he loses when Lennie crushes his hand with his own fist. Curley’s wife knows Lennie did this even though Curly was told to say he had caught his hand in a machine. Curley’s wife pursuit of company leads her to seek solace with Lennie. She pours out her pent up frustration of her unrealised dreams and ambitions. When she realises Lennie isn’t taking much interest she lets him feel her hair. Lennie being Lennie strokes harder and harder even though Curley’s wife begs him to stop. As she struggled to get out of his grasp he accidentally broke her neck. Lennie then ran off to his hiding place where he was told to go if he ever did a ‘bad thing.’ When Curley discovers his wife’s body he runs after Lennie with a mob including George. This leads to George pulling a trigger on Lennie.
Have you noticed that many parents tell their children to dream big and strive to meet their goals? When you are a girl, however, your big dreams become harder to reach, especially in the work field. In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the main characters named Lennie and George work on a ranch for Curley's family. When Curley's wife strikes up a conversation with Lennie, she tells him,"'...I met a guy, an' he was in pitchers...he says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon's he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it...i never got the letter...'" (Steinbeck 88). Curley's wife's ideal career was to become a movie star. She believed she could have been famous for her spectacular acting skills because a man told her that he could have made her into a star, but he never showed up after their first encounter. At the time, if women did not have an occupation, it was very difficult to make a living and survive without marrying a man, thus causing Curley’s wife to marry Curley. However, Curley’s wife regrets the marriage as she says, “‘ I tell you I ain’t used to livin’ like this. I coulda made somethin’ of myself…’” (88). Curley’s wife feels that she had the potential to reach her dreams, but solely relying on the man’s return to ignite her career did not benefit her in any way.
In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, after Lennie’s death, there are many people to blame, but Curley and Curley’s Wife are to blame more than anyone else and there are strong reasons as to why.
Curley’s Wife was probably one of the loneliest characters of all. She never talked to anyone and she never really liked Curley all too much. “Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.” (p.86) Curley’s Wife seems to get a lot of the other guys in trouble. Curley always suspects that she’s fooling around with the other men, “Any you guys seen my wife?” (p.53) Curley’s Wife always gives an excuse to confront the guys saying, “Any you guys seen Curley?” Then she tries to hang around and make conversation. The guy’s see her as a tramp and a troublemaker but all she wants is someone to talk too.
However, Curley’s wife isn’t really a tramp, she is just looking for someone to talk to because she is always alone and because she doesn't like her husband. We can see how Curley’s wife feels about Curley on page 78 of Of Mice and Men, where John Steinbeck writes that, “ “Sure I gotta husban’. You all seen him. Swell guy, ain’t he? Spends all his time sayin’ what he’s gonna do to the guys he don’t like, and he don't like nobody. Think I’m gonna stay in that two-by-four house and listen how Curley’s gonna lead with his left twict, and then bring in the ol’ right cross?” ,” Here, we can see how much Curley’s wife dislikes her husband because he is always talking about fighting with someone and also because he apparently can’t get along with anyone. Curley’s wife also expresses throughout the novel that she is so lonely that she will talk to anyone, even Lennie, Crooks, and Candy who are outcasts, and who she describes as “bindle stiffs”. On page 78, John Steinbeck writes that, “She was breathless with indignation, “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.”” To sum it up, Curley’s wife feels like she’s hit rock-bottom because she is so lonesome to the point where she is
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?
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.
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
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 suffers from loneliness also. Her only companion is very controlling. Curley makes sure his wife doesn’t talks to anyone. She is a victim of herself because she married a man that she hardly even knew. She married him though to have a companion. She killed herself and Lennie because of her need for companionship. She craves companionship because she is an attractive woman with need for interaction. Curley’s wife says,” Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? (Pg. 77)”.
Life is full of choices: where to go to school, where to live, who to marry, and what jobs to apply for, and most of the time each of us control what happens with these choices. What if those choices brought someone to the point of being trapped and feeling helpless? In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck the wife of Curley is in just that spot. She made the choice to marry a tyrant of a man and is now forced to live with the consequences of her decisions. Curley’s Wife is misunderstood due to the workers’ assumptions, Curley’s relationship with her, and her unclear background.
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.