Curley’s Wife is portrayed as a “tart” and “tramp” according to the male characters in Of Mice and Men. She frequently flirts with the ranch hands on her father-in-laws’ farm. Even though she’s a trouble maker, Curley’s Wife experiences extreme loneliness and the hurt of her own broken dream. She explains on page 97 that she had a chance at an acting career but instead she was trapped into living an unhappy life with Curley. This proves that Curley’s wife is not a heartless “bitch” but actually a human being that has aspirations and…
Steinbeck uses the fact that Curley’s wife is the only female of the ranch to post her as a threat to the male ranch workers. When she is first introduced it isn’t pleasant. Candy starts of by saying ‘I seen her give slim the eye’ this instantly gives the reader an idea she is a bit flirtatious. He then continues to say ‘Well, I think Curley’s married…a tart.’ This gives the reader a view of her characteristics and we are put off by them.…
In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the two main characters, George and Lennie, frequently run into Curley, a contentious and hostile man. Curley is one of the main sources of conflict in the book, as we see when George warns Lennie: “…You gonna have trouble with that Curley guy… He’s gonna take a sock at you the first chance he gets” (Steinbeck, 29). Curley is representative of aggression and oppression, which Steinbeck shows us in both Curley’s actions and words.…
This makes me insinuate that he is clever to choose his battles to ensure that he will win. Moreover this in itself tells me that Curley isn’t as tough as he makes out and makes me think that he uses his fights as an excuse to emphasise his masculinity just to exert this fear among his peers and be seen as this dominant alpha male. But he himself is just insecure and really he wants to be like slim; this is evident from his encounter with slim later in the story when he is…
In the novel Of Mice and Men, the character Curley puts his self interests of proving his masculinity before feeling empathetic for his wife. Since Curley is a smaller…
When Curley’s wife enters the picture and lets Lennie touch her hair it ends with Lennie holding on to dear life panicking. Every time a mouse tried to bit his finger he would kill it by shear instinct and reflexes. He broke social conventions by having a pet mouse in his pocket and petting it while the animal was dead. It was not normal to have a pet mouse near or in a person’s house.…
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck creates characters that play important roles throughout the story that contribute to themes and connect readers to an overall focus. Curley’s wife, a minor, but significant character in the story, contributes to the theme and is partly responsible for Lennie’s death. Her sinful actions and petty personality make her a character that isn’t respected by others and is known for being trouble around the ranch. Disregarding her flirtations ways and overall self-absorbance, her dreams of a promising future are destroyed. Her gaudy appearance and constant search for Curley makes the men on the ranch view her as a cheater and inappropriate woman. However, after hearing her story, some of…
When Curley’s wife enters the room she victimises Lennie, Crooks and Candy straight away. “They left all the weak ones here”. She knows that she has more power on the ranch then these three men so she rapidly makes herself feel better by trying to show them that she’s not to be messed with. Curley’s wife is lonely “think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever once in a while”. However, she says this after just calling them “the weak ones”. This is not good for Curley’s wife, as if she always feels lonely and has no one to talk to, but who would want to talk to here if she’s just going to mock all of them.…
In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the character Lennie Smalls is a large man who is physically fit but immature emotionally. He poses a danger to the other characters, as he is responsible for the death of various creatures, the accidental injury of Curley’s hand, and the gruesome murder of Curley’s wife. Although the outcome of the situations was unintended, innocent lives were lost as a result of his lack of fast reaction and childish mentality. Through the actions of Lennie and the negative reactions that followed, Steinbeck reveals that Lennie’s powerlessness over his physical strength acts as his Achilles’ heel.…
John Steinbeck planned out every word he put into his novel Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck did exactly this with the development of the character Curley’s wife. She had started the novel as a “tart” or a nuisance of a character, but later she turned into an admriable character, one that you really feel for.…
Arguably one of the most violent characters in the novel is Curley, the boss’ pugnacious son who even upon his first appearance to the novel is described as ‘bent at the elbows and his hands closed in fists’ a stance of boxer which appears openly violent. Possibly, Steinbeck uses Curley’s ‘tightly curled hair’ to symbolise his unpredictability , suggesting he would be ready to pounce into a fight at any moment. Moreover, this need to prove himself could be consequence of his insecurities of his small height as Candy tells George ‘he’s alla time picking fights with big guys’ which possibly could be a foreshadow for the later fight scene with Lennie in the bunkhouse ‘get up ya big bastard’. The fight scene is significant to the novel because it reveals just how the hostile environment turned the men mean, Curley is continuously searching for his wife and blames the other men on the ranch, this provokes annoyed reactions from all the men and creates an uneasy mood between them, leaving them constantly on edge around each other.…
One of the characters that experience discrimination in Of Mice and Men is Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife is probably one of the most misunderstood characters in the novel, often being looked down upon, or talked badly about. She is the only woman on the ranch. Curley’s wife is unable to be the person she is for the reason that Curley owns her and she is his possession, Curley’s wife is recognized as Curley’s wife and his not able to have her own individuality. This is an example of the way women were commonly treated, especially on a ranch during the 1930s. Curley’s wife endues loneliness due to unable to socialise with anyone on the ranch other than Curley, because he doesn’t trust her with any of the ranch workers and often watches her every single move making sure she doesn’t talk to anyone - “I can’t talk to nobody but Curley…” Curley’s wife also suffers from loneliness because she is identified as “being trouble” in a flirtatious manner which prevents her from socialising and making friends with the ranch workers. George specifically recommends Lennie to not even “…look at that bitch… I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her” (p.36) knowing Lennie’s reputation for trouble. The loneliness she experiences forces her to put down those characters who are socially lower than her on the ranch. As an African American, Crooks has the lowest station on the ranch and so Curley’s wife intimidates him through racism - “Listen, Nigger…” (p.80) – in order to make herself feel…
The conflict between Lennie and Curley was distinct and noticeable throughout the whole story. It started from when they first met each other. This conflict is based on jealousy. Curley is jealous of Lennie’s size. Slim says “he’s all the time picking scraps with big guys, kinda like he’s mad at ‘em coz he aint a big guy”. The word “mad” shows how irrationally Curley is and how angry he is, because he’s not a big guy and Lennie is. His jealousy of Lennie’s size represents that at that time in America, physical strength was valuable, so Curley had to prove he was strong, but lennie seemed as if he would be more powerful than he was.…
“He's the boss's son” (Steinbeck 14) Curley is one of the worst offenders in someone who abuses the power he has. Because he is the boss’s son, he can pretty much get away with whatever he wants to. “Curley's like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys.” (Steinbeck 13) This hatred puts Curley into some tricky situations. Curley likes to pick fights, and is pretty handy. When he decides to pick a fight with Lennie, his power ends up hurting him. Lennie crushes Curley’s hand with just his fist, and Slim forces him to lie about how it got broken. ““I think you got your han' caught in a machine. If you don't tell nobody what happened, we ain't going to. But you jus' tell an' try to get this guy canned and we'll tell ever'body, an' then will you get the laugh.”” (Steinbeck 31) If Curley hadn’t been so hard-headed, and hadn’t abused his power over everyone so much, he wouldn’t have ended up so hurt by it.…
Curley's dreams are powered by his inner motivation of insecurity; however, he is extremely unsuccessful in attaining the reader's empathy. Curley is a boxer who is more diminutive in stature than most men. Because of this, he is not content with his size. Thus, he picks on people bigger than himself to prove his strength, "'Curley's pretty handyCurley's like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He's alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he's mad at 'em because he ain't a big guy'" (26). He dreams of being able to assert his authority and superiority and thus assuage his insecurity, and because of this, he feels the need to over establish his…