Like the ranch-hands, she is desperately lonely and has broken dreams of a better life. Curley’s wife: Of Mice and Menis not kind in its portrayal of women. In fact, women are treated with contempt throughout the course of the book. Steinbeck generally depicts women as troublemakers who bring ruin on men and drive them mad. Curley’s wife, who walks the ranch as a temptress, seems to be a prime example of this destructive tendency—Curley’s already bad temper has only worsened since their wedding.
This symbolizes how she is treated, as if she is worthless and unintelligent. This also shows that men treated women worse than their pets. Men acted towards women as if they owned them. This is evident when we look at Curley’s wife because it shows why she feels insignificant. Instead of calling Curley’s wife by her name they say “Curley’s woman”, “a tart”, “the new kid and a jail bait”.
Further, she does little to hide these flirtations from her husband, though they’re likely to infuriate him and make him feel even smaller. As the only woman on the ranch, Curley’s wife is lonely and sad; something her marriage to Curley only makes worse. She reveals throughout the course of the story that she is unhappy in her marriage because her husband seems to care little for her, and is really more interested in talking about himself than anything else. She is constantly searching for her husband, “I’m looking for Curley.” Although, this may be just an excuse to mingle with the men and have some company. Curley’s wife barges in on Lennie, Crooks, and Candy in Chapter Four.
She has no friends therefore has a lonely existence. Our first impression of Curley’s wife is by the men on the ranch and what they think about her. Some of the words the men use to describe her include ‘‘tart’’ ‘‘jail-bait’’ and ‘‘she got the eye.’’ These all describe her to be dangerous before we first see her. When we’re first introduced to Curley’s wife she is heavily made up with red lipstick and red ostrich feathers both of which symbolise sexuality as well as danger. She has a very flirtatious nature which makes her husband jealous.
Curley’s Wife Essay Loneliness paragraph quotes: “Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody?” –p.99 “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while” –p.88 “Sullenness” used to describe her face when talking about her husband suggests that that is irritated and gloomy that the only person in the world she can talk to is a horrible husband. Shows her underlying irritation and gloom. –p.88 “Wire” is used to describe Curley’s hair by his wife. The fact that his hair is like wire as a posed to Curley’s Wife’s hair which is soft makes us feel that the two are polar opposites as in that Curley’s wife’s hair is an example of her warm welcoming presence where as curley’s hair is like wire as a metaphor of being a closed off place. Death Paragraph quotes: “Writhed” gives the reader the image that she is helplessly struggling like a small animal and compares her to the mouse and dog that Lennie has killed.
In Chapter 4, a new side of this woman is revealed. She is both lonely and hostile. In a confrontation with Crooks, Lennie, Candy and George, she openly admits that Curley has broken her records and lashed out at her in anger. She also turns from victim to abuser when she threatens to have Crooks lynched if he mocks her, disrespects her, or refuses to answe he questions. In this scene, our sympathy for her may disappear, but it helps to bear in mind that her cruelty comes from a places of anger and lonliness.
“Well I know I am ugly and cannot be loved-” (257). O-lan states that Wang Lung may not love her for the reason that she’s ugly, but then again that’s not true Wan Lung may not love her because he has no intelligence and is only on a pursuit for narcissistic perspectives of women, and only values Olan as a functioning woman to do his chores and to give birth to his
Lennie's previous problem with a woman at Weed and Curley's wife's aggressive manner combined with Curley's paranoid bravado and immediate dislike for Lenny make a conflict concerning the three characters inevitable. When George lies to the boss by telling him that he is Lennie's cousin, he reinforces the suspicion that there is something suspect about their friendship. The boss cannot understand that two men would have any concern for each other unless they were bound by familial connections, and George's lie demonstrates that this view is widespread. George, in particular, has cares that occur beyond a narrow scope of self-interest, a view that clashes with the widespread individualist mindset. He is in some ways comparable to Candy, whose care for a decrepit old dog marks him as a weak and sentimental
In the 1930s America, women were seen as inferior to women. They were deprived of many rights and their default position was thought to be at home. Married women were by law forbidden to work and those unmarried were reduced to the worst jobs of society. In Of Mice and Men which is essentially a poignant tale about the friendship between two men, Steinbeck presents to us an unvaried sample of women. One of which actually speaks and appears for herself in person and another who although appears to have some moral values is “dead” and only appears through Lennie as a figment of his imagination.
The narrator states the mother’s resentment of Connie’s beauty because “her looks were gone and that was why she was always after Connie.”[451]. Connie doesn’t make the situation between the two any better by instigating her mother with curt answers and rude responses. “Her parents and her sister were going to a barbecue at an aunt’s house and Connie said ‘no’, she wasn’t interested, rolling her eyes to let her mother know exactly what she thought.”[453]. the only time Connie fully admits that she truly did love her mother was when she was crying in the phone for her. Connie’s father is a quiet bystander when it came to his wife and daughter heated arguments.