The word “tart” shows the immediate impression and effect Curley’s wife has on the other men on the ranch. Steinbeck used this effect because he wants to show the reader the first impression the man have about Curley’s wife. This affects the reader to pre-judge Curley’s wife even before she entered. She has been portrayed as dangerous. When Curley’s wife first appears both George and Lennie notices “...the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway is cut off”.
Curley’s wife would always try to show more of herself, and of course the reaction of the men was to call her a “tramp” and a “rat trap”. This is also subtly changing the readers view. We can see that all the men on the Ranch feel the same way about her. Steinbeck almost puts you in the position of Lennie and George, so whenever she insults them, so also insults you, further exaggerating what you feel about Curley’s wife. For example, when she says “They left all the weak ones here” all the men ignore her to let her know that she isn’t wanted, and Crooks tells her to get out.
For example he is always trying to pick a fight- “Curley’s pretty handy.”- or would do careless things just to prove his authority: just like many men of the 1930s. He also proves his masculinity by marrying an attractive woman. The fact that Steinbeck never gave “Curley’s Wife” a name suggests how men in the 1930s objectified and only used women to portray themselves powerfully. The character of Curley also never speaks or lets anyone speak to his wife which also suggests that women were
She had bigger dreams than just being a housewife and I think being the only woman on the farm stifles her. She looks to the men on the farm for friendship and companionship, but obviously they take it as flirting and in order to stay out of trouble with Curley, they stay away from her. This increases Curley’s wife’s loneliness. Curley’s wife represents women in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Women in the 1930’s were seen by men as scheming and devious.
This shows Janie standing up for herself against Logan because she feels that she doesn’t have to work if she doesn’t want to. She says that he is only mad that she doesn’t worship him and his land and that he is upset that she is even saying anything to him about it in the first place. Logan probably didn’t expect her to stand up for herself like that. After that, she finished making the breakfast, walked out the door, and left to meet Joe Starks, who she had met a couple of days before. During the beginning of Janie’s twenty year marriage to Joe, she loved his appeal, ambition, and sense of style.
This indicates that he is keeping his hand soft for his wife’s sexual pleasure, which proves that Curley sees his wife as nothing more than a sexual object. The “glove fulla Vaseline” can also be seen as an attempt to make the other men on the ranch jealous of what Curley has and it is a constant reminder of how Curley can have sex with his wife whenever he wants and does not have to go into town and go to a brothel to get attention from a woman, like the other men on the ranch have to. Curley’s wife is represented as a sexual object; the property of her aggressive and possessive husband. Candy continues to paint a negative picture of Curley’s Wife to George and Lennie. “Married two weeks and got the eye?
She tries to flirt with men on the ranch but they all seem to have a rule of staying away from her because they think she is a “rat trap” or piece of “jail bate”, meaning she would get them into trouble if she got the chance. Her flirtatious actions towards Lennie at the end of the novel ,where she allows him to touch her hair, results in her death because Lennie wouldn’t let go of her hair and it resulted in him gripping her too tight and he broke her neck. Slim has lots of power over people on the ranch because of his reputation of being a good guy and all the men seem to confess in him almost as a priest-like figure. He is the jerkline skinner which mean that he is the leader of the ranchers and isn’t like Curley who abuses his legitimate power. He makes friends with George quite quickly and they talk about Lennie in a pitiful but admiring way (pitiful about his lack in intelligence but they admire him for his physical strength).
Pete, the rough, coarse engineer of the towboat Mollie Able, which pushes the Cotton Palace, notices Queenie, the African-American cook, wearing a brooch that he had sent to the Cotton Palace's leading lady, Julie la Verne, in the hopes of seducing her away from her husband, Steve Baker, leading man of the company. Julie wants nothing to do with Pete and has given Queenie the brooch. Pete threatens Julie in front of her husband. A fistfight breaks out between Steve and Pete on the levee, just as Cap'n Andy is introducing his actors to the assembled crowd. Andy quickly pretends that Steve and Pete were merely acting out a scene from one of the plays performed by the company.
Curley’s wife is constantly showing up where all the men are, either saying she’s looking for Curley or that she lost something, and is taking her time looking for it, even though she hasn’t lost anything at all. She constantly wants the attention of men and always seeks it out. She spends more time withal the other men on the ranch then she does with Curley, her actual husband. Lastly about Curley’s wife, all of her flirting with Lennie turned out to kill her in the end. She started to flirt with him alone in the bunkhouse, in ways she shouldn’t be.
Because of her apparent sexuality, the men on the ranch ignore and never want anything to do with her. But because she is Curley's wife and Curley is an easily wound up former boxer, they see her as trouble. All of the men are sure that she would try to seduce them and then they would get in trouble and be fired by the boss. So, she's only ever allowed to talk to Curley and always feels lonely because of it. She doesn't like Curley in the least and doesn't enjoy being around him.