We can see that Curley’s wife is portrayed by Steinbeck as a ‘tart’ in the beginning of the book, she is not cared for or liked by many of the men on the ranch at all as she irritates them and they think that she is not loyal towards Curley. However, by the end of the book the reader feels sorry for her as we see deeper inside her and see how lonely she is, she only has the image of a tart because she is so alone and the only way she knows to make friends is by being a flirtatious person. The first mention of Curley’s wife is in chapter 2 when George and ‘the swamper’ are talking about her. They say that she is ‘Purty ... but- well-she got the eye’. They mean that she is always looking and flirting with other men.
Candy has had his dog for as long as he can remember. His dog provides him with a companion and Candy loves this dog with his whole heart. The smelly, old dog bothers the other ranchers. Without worrying of his feelings his fellow ranchers yell at Candy for the smell, which brings him further away from them. The men cannot stand the odor and laziness of the dog and do not care whether Candy will experience loneliness or not if his animal is killed.
When Curley does this, Curley's wife seeks attention from the other men on the ranch. When she tries to talk to them they ignore her and try to push her away, fearing that they would be caught by Curley. She gets angry with the constant rejections and says "Why can't I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely"(86 Steinbeck).
In the third chapter of the novel, Candy the old swamper is the centre of attention. He doesn’t have any friends, so has a dog for company, which unfortunately, later in the novel, Carlson bullies him into letting him shoot it. ‘God almighty that dog stinks, get him out of here… He aint doing you any good, or itself’. Out of desperation, Candy turns to George and Lennie. He becomes intrigued by their dreams of owning a ranch and tries to get himself included.
“He glanced coldly at George then Lennie.” (Steinbeck Pg 23) Getting defensive over the very sight of Lennie and George trying to pick a fight with the wrong people. Curley’s Wife; Judged from the start Curley’s wife is discriminated against from the start, the men on the ranch just assume she’s a whore when in all actuality she only married Curley because she had to. “She had full rouged lips and wide-spaced eye’s, heavily made up, her hair hung in little rolled clusters like sausages.” (Steinbeck pg 29) The very definition of beauty in the 1930’s Curley’s wife is lonely and in need of a friend other than her over bearing husband. Her only mistake when it came to talking to Lennie was panicking when he latched onto her hair which was ultimately her down fall.
Candy the crippled ranch hand, suffers from an extreme lack of interaction with other people. After losing his long-time companion, his elderly dog, and because of his age, Candy succumbs to the trap of seclusion because he cannot sufficiently mix with the other men while they buck barley in the fields, limiting his level of interaction with them. He states shortly before Carlson shoots his dog “No, I couldn’t do that. I had him too long.” Candy is also quick to approach a new source of friendship to compensate losing his dog, and this becomes evident when he quotes “S’pose I come with you guys...I ain’t much good but I can hoe the
To save himself Crooks tries to explain to Lennie how it feels to be lonely, ‘Maybe you can see now, you got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back.’ This monologue is important Crooks is lonely in many ways: he is crippled so he is isolated from society, he is black and he is intelligent all of which set him apart from anyone else on the ranch. At this point animal language is used again for Lennie. Crooks discusses how life would be for Lennie if he was on his own, ‘They’ll tie you up with a collar, like a dog.’ Words like ‘growled’ also show how Lennie’s temperament changes. Please note that animal language is used the most during tense scenes.
Her character is harshly judged from the start simply because she’s a woman and no one saw things from her perspective. Because of this, the reader is influenced to feel sympathy for Curley’s wife. Her husband, who is always trying to keep a close eye on her, controls her. He is exceedingly possessive of her, and is easily angered when he catches her talking to another man. “I get lonely.” She says to Lennie, “You can talk to people, but I cant talk to nobody but Curley”.
For example, Delia is passive, religious and hard working woman, but at the end, she changes her attitude towards her husband because of his mistreatment and unfaithfulness. These conflicts and her husband mischievousness cause the death of her husband by his own plan. In a real life, women experience the same kind of situations. For example, one of my mother’s friends gets married with a man, who drinks all the day and abuses her. She only doing job for both of them.
* Curley's wife is so overwhelmed by her loneliness; she seeks friendship from other men. She seeks out the friendship of Lennie for all of the others fear Curley and will have nothing to do with her. "Think I don't like to talk to somebody ever' once in a while.” Short Answer Quiz over Chapters 1-3 1. What trouble did Lennie and George have in Weed? 2.