Character of Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men Essay

August 13, 2017 General Studies

The novel Of Mice and Men was written in the 1930’s by a adult male named John Steinbeck. The book is set in America and at a clip during the Great Depression. This was when the stock market had crashed some old ages prior. tonss of companies went bankrupt. the banking systems failed and a monolithic zoom in unemployment was witnessed. Besides during this period of the Great Depression drouths were seen in the southern and western provinces of America with failed crops in Kansas. Oklahoma. Arkansas and Texas. The fertile grassland that one time was. became desert like and the country became known as the “dust bowl” . During this clip the adult females fitted into this society as the place keepers. the work forces would travel out to gain money whilst the adult female stayed place to guarantee things ran along swimmingly at that place. The cardinal footings that I will be measuring in this essay. is how Steinbeck portrays Curley’s married woman and how he attempts to do the reader either feel disfavor or sympathy towards her. In chapter two Steinbeck describes Curley’s married woman as a “tart” . this is a derogative term used to depict a female who could perchance be “loose” or “promiscuous” even if they are non.

Even before the reader is introduced to Curley’s married woman. Steinbeck begins to allure the reader to dislike her. Further on in the chapter when she is being introduced for the first clip. Steinbeck uses imagination to depict Curley’s married woman. he writes about her “full rouged lips” . her “red finger nails” . the “bouquets of ruddy ostrich feathers” and the “red mules” she is have oning. Here the reader can see that Steinbeck is utilizing intensions of the coloring material ruddy. Red is seen as a provocative or seductive coloring material. it can besides be seen as a coloring material of warning or danger. Here Steinbeck could perchance be seeking to bode future events to come. From this the reader may get down to already organize a disfavor towards Curley’s married woman as it appears that she trying to pull the attending of the workers on the farm. this would be an un-natural manner for a married adult female to act. In chapter three Steinbeck continues to depict Curley’s married woman in a negative mode. Steinbeck uses the term “jail bait” when she is being spoken about by the farm workers. The term gaol come-on is a metaphor as you can non literally be a piece of come-on that will stop another up in gaol.

A adult female who is described as gaol come-on is person who attempts to look older than they really are. and are perchance trying to pull a suer to take the come-on. if this event comes to fruition the suer could happen himself functioning a drawn-out prison sentence. Further on in chapter three. Steinbeck writes about Curley’s married woman as holding “the eye” all the clip. Steinbeck once more is utilizing a metaphor to spot Curley’s married woman actions towards the farm workers. You can non really have the oculus. what Steinbeck is making is trying to demo the reader that she is ever looking for attending and has to move in a provocative mode to obtain this. The reader may get down to experience strong disfavor towards Curley’s married woman now. as this is non the manner any married adult female should move. However it besides begins to demo the reader what a alone being it was for adult females during this epoch and perchance all that Curley’s married woman really craved was societal interaction which is a basic demand for any human being.

Steinbeck once more could perchance be boding future events to come. In chapter four Steinbeck begins to touch more on the alone being for a adult female during this period of clip. Curley’s married woman speaks about desiring to “talk to somebody of all time one time in a while” this once more represents the solitariness that she may be sing and once more perchance the cause for her playing in the mode that she does around the workers. Steinbeck here uses imagination as the reader can conceive of Curley’s married woman being wholly entirely from female contact and merely holding Curley to talk to and the farm workers when Curley is non about. Steinbeck could besides be perchance adumbrative hereafter events to come. Further on in the chapter Steinbeck besides creates an component of fright towards Curley’s married woman. this is seen when she is speaking with Lennie and Candy. Curley’s married woman provinces to Sugarcoat that she could acquire him “strung up” on a tree when she is challenged by him. Steinbeck once more is utilizing imagination and a metaphor to depict what will hold.

Bing strung up is a referral to being hung. this would be done by doing a snare at one terminal of a rope and hanging it over a subdivision and binding it to a tree. unluckily a individual so has the noose put over his caput and so the rope is pulled tight and the individual is efficaciously “strung up” . From this the reader may get down to experience a strong disfavor to Curley’s married woman even though she could perchance be lonely. the manner she is traveling about acquiring the attending she craves is non the manner to win people over. Making menaces to a individual who already may non acquire the best intervention. will merely do them fear the effects more if they are found out. In chapter five Steinbeck uses imagination to depict the manner Curley’s married woman softly approached Lennie in the stable. the reader could experience that this is a sneakily manner to acquire near to Lennie and so before he can acquire off from her she is upon him.

Steinbeck besides describes Curley’s married woman as holding small “sausage curls” . Steinbeck is utilizing personification to depict her hair. as in world you would non hold sausage as coil in someone’s hair. and once more may be trying to rock the reader to dislike her. besides from this the reader may experience that Curley’s married woman can be rather sly and cunning at times. the manner that she approaches Lennie in the barn is non the norm if you are merely sauntering approximately. it must be a deliberate act. cognizing full well that she will catch Lennie entirely. From this the reader may experience a strong disfavor towards her. this is due to the fact that although she is married. she is still trying to acquire one of the farm workers entirely. It is about like she can non defy the enticement. And finally in the terminal if anything was to go on. the worker would travel on and she would hold knew victims to seek and lure.

Throughout the novelette the readers sentiments of Curley’s married woman may somewhat rock from disfavor to sympathy. this is because the manner Steinbeck uses imagination to depict her at the get downing it is that of a loose and easy adult female. hungering the attending of work forces on the farm in an about sexual and provocative mode even though she is late married. This subject continues throughout the bulk of the narrative at different intervals. She enjoys to have on ruddy. she is ever inquiring if anyone have seen her hubby. she seems to loosen up more if they have non and enjoys the attending she attracts.

The reader may besides experience understanding for her as when Steinbeck describes her lacking company. this could perchance be a ground for her ever hanging around the worker and looking for Curley. Ultimately I feel the reader will demo great dislike towards her. the manner she acts is non the right manner for a adult female to move irrespective of solitariness. I feel that Steinbeck is trying to pull attending to how alone life must hold been for any individual during that period of clip. The battles that they must hold come over and lengths that some people would hold gone to accomplish that.