In the 19th and 20th century people lived in and supported an anti-feminist society, where the men were superior to the women; treating them horribly, making them feel unimportant. The authors Kate Chopin and John Steinbeck represent this idea through their most recognized works: “Desiree’s Baby” and Of Mice and Men, where women were inferior to men. The female characters Desiree from “Desiree’s Baby” and Curley’s wife from Of Mice and Men, both are not highly valued by their own husbands and society, but while Curley’s wife puts up with her husband’s and society’s wrong doings, Desiree does not. Desiree, the protagonist in the short story “Desiree’s Baby” is a young women who faces a “disgrace” to man kind as her husband, Armand, claimed …show more content…
Due to the fact that she’s involved in a loveless marriage, she questions, “Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely” (86), while attempting to talk to Lennie, when he then obliviously rejects her without his intention. Throughout the novel Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck generally depicts Curley’s wife as a troublemaker who brings ruin on the men and drives them mad. Curley’s wife, who walks the ranch as a temptress, seems to be a prime example of this destructive tendency. An attractive woman whom Candy says "has the eye" and George calls "jail-bait," Curley's wife is seductive, cruel, and intimidating. George expresses his assessment of her and tells Lennie, "I seen 'em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her. You leave her be,” (30). Although her purpose is rather simple in the book’s opening pages—she is the “tramp,” “tart,” and “bitch” that threatens to destroy male happiness—her appearances later in the novel when she confronts Lennie, Candy, and Crooks in the stable, she admits to feeling a kind of shameless dissatisfaction with her life. Her vulnerability when she admits to Lennie her dream of becoming an actress makes her utterly human and much more interesting than the stereotypical dumbfounded brat. Curley’s wife was portrayed as someone who is no good and just seemed …show more content…
When grown into young womanhood she is as beautiful and charming as she has always been. In addition, she loves easily and without judgementalism. At the end of the short story, Chopin describes a scenery where Desiree is bound to drown her baby and herself. This portrays Desiree as courageous due to the fact that she wouldn’t put up with society’s criticism just because of her child’s complexion. Meanwhile Curley’s wife is lonely. She exploits her power as the Boss' son's wife to threaten others and seeks company from the other ranch men by constantly coming to the bunk house under the pretense of looking for Curley when ironically, she wants to get away from him. Family wise, Curley’s wife had a bad relationship with her mother at such a young age, resulting in her becoming homeless after she leaves the home of her mother. She then meets Curley and marries him, to her convenience of shelter and food making her dependent and putting up with the men in the novel discriminating her just because of her
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...
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...
In the Steinbeck novel ‘Of Mice and Men’, he introduces us to the character of Curley’s wife. She could be interpreted as a mis-fitting character in the novel, as no one relaters to her. This essay will go on to examine the character of Curley’s wife and how characters perceive her and how this influences the readers interpretation of her.
The short story “Desiree’s Baby” written by Kate Chopin, tells of love, betrayal, and loss. The story begins by pulling in the imagination by the introduction of Desiree, who was found by Monsieur Valmonde as she slept in the shadow of the stone pillar. Desiree’s unknown origin would later come into the story only to give the reader a sense of false knowledge of Desiree’s origin when Armand Aubigny, the rich plantation owner of L’abri, falls madly in love with Desiree the moment his eyes set upon her, as she stood in the shadow of the same stone pillar. They marry and have a baby boy. When the baby reaches 4 months old his skin begins to show the appearance of a quadroon. The skin color of the child sets forth the end of Armand’s love for
“Desiree was happy when she had the baby and Armand was as happy and nice to the slaves then before but after he saw his child growing to be mixed it changed his whole attitude” (Griffin). This shows how the story takes place during slavery time, since the husband was a slave.
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.
He 's also a big reason for the story 's them because of the situation he was put in the, " that the child is not white; it means that you are not white."(Chopin) Madame Valmondé who is another main character and is the women who raised Desiree as a child. She has not seen Desirée or the baby for months so she doesn 't know what 's coming to her from Armand and Desirée, "My own Desirée: come home to Valmondé, back to your mother who loves you, come with your child."(Chopin) Madame is a big favor to Desirée and her feelings towards the situation. Another major important to plot a short story is the setting. Setting is the time and place in which the story happens; authors often use descriptions of landscape,scenery,buildings,seasons or weather to provide a strong sense of the setting.()In the short story, "Desiree 's Baby" the setting is taken in Louisiana before the american civil war. Most of the story 's setting is held in desiree’s house where she is having all these different situations,” He absented himself from home; and when there, avoided her presence and that of her child, without excuses.”(Chopin) Another important setting to the story is
In the short story, Desiree’s Baby, written by Kate Chopin, this story is about, a girl named Desiree, who adopted by a wealthy French Creole couple in antebellum Louisiana. She shortly falls in love with a well-cherished gentleman named Armand, from another wealthy Creole family, and they get married, and have a child. The child turns out to have dark skin and it is assumed that Desiree is part black. Desiree rejects from society, but it is later discovered that her husband is the one who is half black. In “Desiree’s Baby,” Chopin uses the expressions of mood/tone, theme, symbolism, conflict, and irony to enhance the reader’s enjoyment.
In her story, Desiree’s Baby, Kate Chopin underlined the contrast between lust and love, exploring the problem of a man’s pride that exceeded the love he has for his wife. Armand, the main character of the story, is a slave owner who lived in Louisiana during the era of slavery. He married an adopted young woman, Desiree, and together they have a son who eventually became an obstacle in the way of his father’s happiness, thus removing out the true character of Armand. Desiree’s Baby, by Kate Chopin is a love story, love that ultimately proved to be a superficial love, a story that shed light on the ugly relationships between people. “Lust is temporary, romance can be nice,
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 'Desiree?s Baby,' Chopin illustrates her idea of the relationship between men and women by portraying Desiree as vulnerable and easily affected, whereas Armand is presented as superior and oppressive. Throughout ?Desiree?s Baby,? Kate Chopin investigates the concept of Armand's immense power over Desiree. At first, Desiree tries to conform to the traditional female role by striving to be an obedient wife. Later in the story, this conformity changes after Desiree gives birth to her part-black son.
She is courted by a man named Armand who fell in love with her as if “struck by a pistol shot” (Chopin 552). When married and together they live in a home named L’Abri and this “ironic because it will turn out to be the opposite of a safe shelter for Desiree” (Gilbert 134). Even Chopin’s language shows how tragic this short story is. As the tale goes on and she has a son, the boy skin begins to darken. Gilbert writes about how Valmonde, Desiree’s adopted mother, asks about Armand’s attitude, for she is worried about the backlash if he had noticed his son is not fully white.
Ieshia Mitchell Dr. Mahwash Shoaib ENG 232-02 American Literature II Short Paper 1 February 14, 2017 Desiree's Baby The short story “Desiree’s Baby” was written by a very unique artist named Kate Chopin. What challenged Chopin to writing short stories was being told that this was morally a male-dominated profession, but that didn’t stop her. She went on to write many stories during her time that will remain classics today. Desiree’s baby was one of her very many great works. .
“Desiree’s Baby” is a short story that was written by Kate Chopin. It is about a woman that was found by the side of the road as a baby by a wealthy French family. The family thought of it as a gift from God because they were not able to have children of their own. One day when Desiree grew up, her neighbor Armand Aubigny sees her outside by a gate and immediately falls in love with her, despite the protests from her wealthy family. Desiree and Armand are passionate about their love and immediately get married and have a child.
In “Desiree’s Baby,” Kate Chopin writes about the life of a young lady and her new family. In this short story, the fond couple lived in Louisiana before the American Civil War. Chopin illustrates the romantic atmosphere between Armand and Desiree. Chopin also describes the emotion of the parents for their new born. When the baby was born, Armand’s heart had softened on behalf of others. One afternoon, Desiree and the baby were relaxing in a room with a young boy fanning them with peacock feathers. As they were relaxing, Desiree had sniffed a threatening scent. Desiree desired Armand’s assistance as she felt faint from the odor that she could not comprehend. Armand had denied the request his wife sent. Therefore, he cried out that she nor the baby were white. Thus, Desiree took the baby and herself and walked into the bayou and they were never seen again. In this short story, Chopin illustrates the psychological abuse Desiree faces from her husband.