Of Mice And Men Curley's Wife Analysis

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Living through the Great Depression made her life truly a depression. She was a dreamer that was incapable of grasping her dreams. Being called a tart, the eye and the trap, Curley’s wife is the lone female on a all-male ranch on the Salinas Valley in northern California. The men on the ranch only think of her as an object, never as a real person with feelings in the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck portrays Curley’s wife as powerless and dangerous, using temptation to gain companionship which then causes sympathy for the reader. Curley’s wife is just another distraction that causes trouble for Lennie and George. She wears red which is a color that signifies danger which warns people to keep away from her. According…show more content…
Steinbeck doesn’t give her a name because women during that time era are just there to tempt and torture the men with sexuality. She dresses and acts provocatively which leads to her trying to be the center of attention which she fails to because the men don’t want trouble with Curley. For example, Curley’s wife says “Nobody can’t blame a person for lookin’...“Hi, Slim,” she said. Slim’s voice came through the door. “Hi, Good-lookin’.” It describes that she only uses her looks to talk to the men instead of her personality. The fact that she couldn’t achieve her dream of becoming an actress, makes her desperate for any attention which leads to negative attention with Lennie resulting in her…show more content…
She had a dream of becoming a star living in mansions, but instead she took the route of living on a ranch with Curley. She directly states what she would have done in her Hollywood life, “Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes—all them nice clothes like they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers took of me. When they had them previews I coulda went to them, an’ spoke in the radio, an’ it wouldn’ta cost me a cent because I was in the pitcher. An’ all them nice clothes like they wear. Because this guy says I was a natural.” However, her dreams were shattered which made her run away to then marry Curley. Nevertheless, running away from your problems aren’t always the best ideas, as she found out by living on an all men ranch and being desperate for any attention she could get. Throughout her rough life being “owned” by Curley, the most important thing we must feel some sympathy for is that she was never given a name. The reason for this is because Steinbeck was trying to reflect her lack of individually and identity. In the end, Curley doesn’t even care about his wife’s death. In fact, he cared about her more once she was dead than she ever did when she was
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