What Kind of a Person is Curley's Wife in of Mice and Men
As Oscar Wilde says, “If there was less sympathy in the world, there will be less trouble in the world.” It is important that people have sympathy, or else there wouldn’t be charities and organizations to help the needy set up. However, with more sympathy, people tend to ignore what is right and what is wrong. With sympathy, people will let their emotions take control of them totally and forget to use their brain to determine what is logical. Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men by John Steinback is the kind of person who tries to gain the sympathy and attention of others. However, she fails desperately, and her craving for sympathy dug herself a grave in the end. Curley’s wife is an unsympathetic person because she’s mean, provocative, and self-obsessed.
To start with, Curley’s wife doesn’t gain sympathy because she’s vicious. For example , she insulted Crooks, the stable worker viciously, after starting an argument with Candy and Crooks about Curley. When Crooks told her to leave his cabin, she yelled, “’Listen nigger, you know what I can do to you if you open your trap?’”(80). She then told Crooks again “’I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny’”(81). This depicts how she uses her status as Curley’s wife and her power over the black as a white woman to force people to obey her. This also portrays how in that time racial equality doesn’t really exist, although there is no more slavery, white people still boss black people around and still have a huge influence over them. She also said to Candy after complaining about Curley “’An’ what am I doin’? Standin’ here talkin’ to a bunch of bindle stiffs-a nigger an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’sheep’” (78). An inference can be made from what she just said- that her nastiness may come from her loneliness and her unhappy marriage. People may sympathize with her about her limited rights as a woman during that era, however her nastiness and rudeness makes her a very unsympathetic and unlikable character.
To start with, Curley’s wife doesn’t gain sympathy because she’s vicious. For example , she insulted Crooks, the stable worker viciously, after starting an argument with Candy and Crooks about Curley. When Crooks told her to leave his cabin, she yelled, “’Listen nigger, you know what I can do to you if you open your trap?’”(80). She then told Crooks again “’I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny’”(81). This depicts how she uses her status as Curley’s wife and her power over the black as a white woman to force people to obey her. This also portrays how in that time racial equality doesn’t really exist, although there is no more slavery, white people still boss black people around and still have a huge influence over them. She also said to Candy after complaining about Curley “’An’ what am I doin’? Standin’ here talkin’ to a bunch of bindle stiffs-a nigger an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’sheep’” (78). An inference can be made from what she just said- that her nastiness may come from her loneliness and her unhappy marriage. People may sympathize with her about her limited rights as a woman during that era, however her nastiness and rudeness makes her a very unsympathetic and unlikable character.