Of Mice and Men-Curleys Wife Analysis

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 purposely set in Salinas-Steinbeck observes his environment and writes his novels based on his senses. This probably affected the way he wrote. This makes him very familiar with the characters he gives birth to and helps us develop a deep understanding of them too. Steinbeck creates many characters and develops them deeply. One of those characters is Curley’s wife. By becoming familiar with her, we come to an understanding of the tragedy of life. We see many perspectives of her, some negative and some positive. We feel ourselves orbiting this character. But we see ourselves evolving as the character also does. She could be interpreted as a ‘miss-fitting’ character in the novel, as no one relaters to her. So how does Steinbeck present and develop Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men?

Throughout the book, Curley’s Wife is often portrayed in a negative view, the way most men would have thought of women in those times. She is first introduced to the reader through Candy. She is called a ‘tart’, which instinctively creates a biased opinion of her. When we meet her ‘full rouged lips,’ ‘wide-spaced eyes heavily made up,’ ‘red fingernails’ and her ‘hair hung in little rolled clusters like sausages,’ her description seems to fit Candy’s, so the