Notes

Curley’s wife is often portrayed as lonely, “I get awful lonely”. This is because she is the only woman on the ranch and therefore nobody wants to talk to her as they all think that she is a “rattrap” and they don’t want any trouble. Consequently, the only person she can talk to is Curley; she expresses her frustration in only being able to talk to him in Section 5 when she is in the barn with Lennie “I never get to talk to nobody.” This shows that she wants to talk to someone other than Curley. Curley's wife continues to tell us about her dream of becoming a movie star. She loves the clothes “all them nice clothes” the make-up, and most of all the attention, “had pitchers took of me.” Her dream may explain why her appearance means so much to her, she wants to feel like a movie star. We find out that a man from Hollywood said he would make her famous, he told her that she was “natural” and that he would write to her as soon as he got back to Hollywood. She never received the letter and suspected that her mother stole it,“I ast her if she stole it, too, an’ she says no. So I married Curley.” She only married Curley to spite her mother who she thought was holding her back from her big break-through. It is here, in the barn with Lennie when we first find out about Curley's wife’s past, and we discover maybe there is more to her than meets the eye. She tells Lennie that Curley’s “not a nice fella”, and she says “I don’ like Curley”, this would explain why she is so lonely as Curley is the only person she can talk to and she doesn’t even like him. Steinbeck has used section five to make the reader feel compassion for Curley's wife before she is killed by Lennie.