Curley In Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

When Curley’s wife dies, Curley, rather than showing the reaction that would be expected of a man whose wife has just been killed. He does not appear to grieve at all in any way, barely looking at the body, or regarding the her death into his immediate future plans. Instead, his first thought is towards seeking revenge and hunting down Lennie. It is perhaps this moment in the novel which epitomises the way in which Curley is aggressive, nasty, and shows no concern

Steinbeck's novel 'Of Mice and Men' explores the everyday lives of migrant workers during the Great Depression. In this era, American men were forced to leave their families and become 'drifters'. These were people who didn't have a fixed job and continually moved from place to place.

Curley’s wife acts very provocative, playful, childish and flirtatious, this is because she is very lonely and has no power at all. Nobody knows the real person she is because no one ever dares to get in trouble with her. Curley’s wife is often presented negatively by Steinbeck such as when she is cruel to crooks after his hopes have been raised by the dream. This is easily shown when Curley’s wife snaps at Crooks. “keep your place then, Nigger.

It is known fact that extreme gender roles can be psychologically harmful and Steinbeck’s character Curley is a testament to this. Society in the novel believed that men are supposed to be strong and tall however Curley is none of these. He feels so pressured by society to look and act a certain way and so he resents men who are taller and is always trying to fight people who he does not match up to. The patriarchal system led Curley to feel the need to display his dominance and resort to violence. Candy describes

In this essay I am going to be assessing the character Curleys Wife from Steinbeck’s book Of Mice And Men. The book is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression it features two farm workers called George and Lennie. The travel around together in search of work sharing a dream of a place of their own, a small ranch where they can live and work for themselves. It tells the story of how violence may erupt to destroy those dreams. Curleys wife is a character in the book who from the brief encounters with her is presented in two ways. Firstly the dangerous, flirtatious character who isn’t trusted by the rest of the ranch workers but then later one we realize how she is just a victim

Curley’s wife is a complicated character. She is unfaithful and bitter. But that’s only because she is extremely lonely and feels unwanted by her husband. She takes the feeling of dissatisfaction and projects it at all of the men on the ranch. She regrets the direction her life has taken but still has hope that she can achieve her dream. All the characters in the novel feel like outsiders and Curley’s wife is no

This displays Curley asserting his dominance over Lennie as he feels threatened by his height. It can be seen throughout the book that Curley’s body language towards Lennie and the other men taller than Curley is a dominant show of force to the other men to assert his authority over them.

In the period of the 1930s in America there were lots of forms of discrimination: one of them was sexism. Women were not seen as equal to men: they had fewer rights than men, were paid less and most of them were only allowed to take care of domestic chores. In that period of time, women started realizing how submitted they were to men, so they began having ideas on how they could improve their lives and gain more independence. They had their own American Dream.

He has used this by using the quote '' The ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young.'' Steinbeck has described her as an angel who washed out her sins and went pure. In contrast to this Curley only cares about his social status. You can see this when ''Curley...ain't you better stay here with your wife''. Normally when your wife dies you would want to share your last moments together but the fact that Curley has to be reminded about his wife's death is upsetting since his main focus is killing Lennie. And it emphasises that he just used her as a possession due to the fact that it was a loveless marriage therefore he didn't really care much about her. In this quote you can also tell that all the bunkmates felt sorry for her even thought she acted with suspense because she didn't deserve more misery in her

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,

The reader sees fleeting glances of his insecurities, such as when he runs into the bunkhouse, demanding, “Any you guys seen my wife?”, for as much as Curley may brag about it, his wife is hardly ever by his side (Steinbeck 53). Curley lacks self-confidence, and must bully the other workers to raise his own self-esteem. Picking fights with other men, which is the one thing that saves Curley from his internal lack of confidence, also causes his demise: “Lennie grabs his entire fist in mid-swing, stopping him, and then proceeds to crush Curley's hand” (Bloom). His hand, which he used to beat others, was his only savior, and now Lennie has crushed it, which disables Curley even more and pushes him further away from the tall, confident, masculine fighter he wishes to be. His loneliness stems from insecurity, and his disabilities cause that insecurity.

Curley is the boss’ son, he seems to use this to influence people into supporting him when he decides to fight. He is also a boxer which influences fear within the ranch; Steinbeck makes him strain for authority, but he doesn’t gain any respect throughout the book because the workers already have an authoritative figure, who is Slim. Slim is ‘god-like’ and on the other hand Curley is ‘scrappy’ and narcissistic, he is also laughed at by other characters.

says “I don’t like Curley, he aint a nice guy.” From this it is simple

- Lord Chesterfield once said, "You must look into people, as well as at them." If you apply this logic to Curley's wife and Crooks in the book, Of Mice and Men, you will find that they are the same in many ways despite their differences in race and sex. These two unfortunate souls live in a world full of shattered dreams, discrimination, and loneliness.

Most if not all women have been treated differently because they are not men. While some instances are more dramatic than others it still happens. Even though things of this sort are getting much better it still happens. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Curley and all of the guys who work on the farm treat Curley’s wife like she isn’t even a person. By the treatment of Curley’s wife and and the narrator Munro in “Boys and Girls” the writers suggest that women are often mistreated only because of something they can’t even control.