Reasons For Curley's Wife

What Curley’s Wife Wanted

Living on a ranch in the middle of nowhere with only men, and with your husband, who you don’t love, while being constantly criticized for trying to find a friend. . . this is the life of Curley’s wife. In the novel Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, a group of men work on a ranch with one women, Curley’s wife. She tends to be flirty and is overall weird. This is because she just wants attention. Part of her problem is career disappointment. Curley’s wife wanted to be an actor, but didn’t make it, resulting in her feeling bad for herself and wanting people to pay attention to her. “Well, a show came through, an’ I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’t let me. She says because I was on’y fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If I’d went, I

She is rarely allowed to come out of the house and when she is, she is belittled. “I get lonely, she said, You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody, how’d you like not to talk to anybody?” (Pg 87) Curley is extremely paranoid about his wife, trying to control her by forcing her to stay in the house, and not talking to people, this makes Curley’s wife want the attention she doesn’t get in the house, out of the house. When Candy, Lennie, and Curley’s wife were in Crooks’ room, she told them that, “Well, I ain’t givin you no trouble. Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in awhile? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?” (Pg 77). Curley’s wife is talking about how she rarely gets to open up and have an actual conversation, and confronting the men about how she rarely gets to talk with the men without being scrutinized by Curley.

In the novel Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife just wants attention. She wanted to be an actor, but believes her mother ruined that for her, she is unhappy in her marriage with Curley, and she is lonely. Curley’s Wife just wants the attention she thinks she