Of Mice and Men: Is Curley's Wife a Victim or Villian?

John Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife at the start of the story as an irrelevant character because she has no relation with George and Lennie. At the start, Curley is one of the most important characters (besides George and Lennie) because he has the power to crush George and Lennie’s dream of having a farm of your own. But as the story goes on, to end, we see the importance of her character and that everything that has happened on the ranch is caused by her presence; even though she is not in the story as much as others, she has a long lasting effect on the other characters. She is mentioned in the story a lot because of how she would acted around the men working in the ranch. In the end, we knew Lennie and George were not going to get a farm of their own because of how Lennie is drown to trouble all the time but we ultimately find out that it’s Curly’s wife that crushes George and Lennie’s dreams when Lennie kills her. Again her presence caused a lot of trouble in the ranch which furthermore kills Lennie and their dream. She is a defined as a villain by how she is pruned to flirt and seeks attention from anyone she comes across. She is racist and mean to some of the workers e.g. Crooks and Candy, because she knows even though she is not liked; she has the power to make their lives a living hell. She is also considered a victim because before she dies, she talks to Lennie about how she had all these dreams about becoming an actress and being famous; and as the reader we see her true self and we see that deep down she is a kind and lovely person. We then know that she is only flirtatious and mean to the men because she is just trying to have bond with someone because Curly has commanded her not to talk to anyone; this made her lonely and bitter. Her racist remarks to Crooks wasn’t only because of her bitter behaviour, but because in her times black people were not treated well anyway. Steinbeck presents Curly’s wife as a trouble maker and a pest but he also made