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Of Mice and Men-Curleys Wife Analysis

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Of Mice and Men is a novel set on a ranch in the Salinas Valley in California, during the Great Depression of the 1930s by John Steinbeck. It was the first work to bring Steinbeck’s national recognition as a writer. The book addresses the real hopes and dreams of working-class America. Steinbeck's short novel raises the lives of the poor and dispossessed to a higher, symbolic level. The title suggests that plans of Mice and Men often go awry, a reference to Robert Burn’s poem "To a Mouse." Since the novel has been published, it has been called “Vulgar” and “Offensive”; perhaps because of the way it mentally handicapped people, people of different races (black people) and the way in which women were portrayed. *Of Mice and Men is …show more content…

She always tells about her encounter with a travelling actor who told her she could join their show. Also likes to talk about how she got an offer to go to Hollywood but swears on her life that her mother stole the letter. She would never realize that men weren’t really interested in her talent at all. She’s self-obsessed and unable to judge herself and her position honestly, simply unsatisfied.*Curley’s wife says ‘If I'd went, I wouldn't be livin' like this, you bet’ and this shows that at one point in her life, she had dreamed of being a notable luminary. She also continues to comment on her past by saying, ‘this guy says I was a natural’. This depicts how Curley’s wife may be influenced by the American dream so she may still have hope and dreams to carry out her task which failed in the past. The American dream plays a vital theme constantly throughout the book for other characters on the ranch too. George and Lennie have their dream of ‘livin of the fatha tha lan’, which fails in the end as George tragically kills Lennie. They are perpetually stirred with ideas to satisfy their dream and too eager to accomplish what they started which resulted in them accidentally involving Crooks and Candy in their fairytale. . Hope is important to all of Steinbeck’s characters because it brings strength, joy, peace, unfailing love and most importantly, rest (relaxation in hard times of the depression was critical). These are qualities the ranch workers lacked and desperately needed

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