I never seen no piece of jail
bait worse than her.
By Joe and Michael
What is the reader supposed to think
about Curley's Wife?
Introductions and what they should
include
An Example of an Introduction
Curley’s Wife is a fundamental conduit for
exploring and exposing a multitude of themes,
in particular sexism, in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice
and Men. At first presented as a facile and
predicable character, the novel progresses to
reveal her as a multi-faceted and intricate
character.
Paragraph One Focus on Superficiality
• Primary focus on appearance/actions of
Curley’s Wife (CW) at outset of novel
• Traditional, simplistic view of CW
• Absence of name
•Property of Curley
•Put Curley’s Wife on the same level as Candy’s dog
•Creates the impression that she doesn’t have an
existence of her own
–She is not fully an individual
•‘Full rouged lips…heavily made
up…nasal’
•At the beginning of the novel Steinbeck
portrays Curley’s Wife as being openly
flirtatious and coquettish
•‘Thrown forward’
• Lustful & sexual connotations
Paragraph Two Focus on Loneliness
• Trapped in loveless marriage
– Property of Curley (Personified by her name; CURLEY’S wife)
• In some aspects she is ostracised from the ranch community,
but in others she is much the same:
– Dream destroyed – ‘he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural’
– Going through same trauma and pain that the Great Depression has wrought upon
the ranch community – “Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody?”
– Links in with weaker characters; she lacks any real power: this absence of power
provokes her to catharsis; she vents her pent up anger on those of the ’weaker
ones’ that are even weaker than her – Crooks and Lennie. Multiple uses of ‘nigger’
to describe Crooks: ‘I’d have you strung up a tree so fast’
• Dream destroyed – provokes sympathy within reader
Paragraph Three Focus on Power
•
•
•
‘She closed on him. “You know what I could do to you?”
Crooks seemed to grow smaller, and he pressed himself
against the wall…Crooks had reduced himself to nothing’
Curley’s wife abuse of the minimal power she has; only
through association with Curley does she possess it.
Nobody wants to antagonise Curley for two reasons:
1)
Aggressive demeanor of Curley intimidates the
weaker characters of the ranch
2)
Curley is the son of the boss (tie to historical
context – loss of job, hard to find another)
This is only prevalent with the circle of weak characters,
as when Curley interacts with stronger characters such as
Slim, he is sycophantic
–
The door opened. Slim came in, followed by
Curley…”I was jus’ tryin’ to tell you, I didn’t mean
nothing” said Curley’
- Listed by level of power –‘Prince of ranch’ Slim most
respected:
‘his authority was so great, that his word was taken, be it
politics or love
Paragraph Four The Reality of Curley’s Wife
• In reality, she is submissive and fragile; she
gets ‘awful lonely’.
• Referred throughout as ‘bitch’ ‘tramp’
‘poison’ ‘tart’ – Her flirtatious advances are
just attention seeking – underappreciated
on ranch and disregarded as such by ranch
community.
• Steinbeck provokes sympathy from the
reader after Curley’s Wife has been killed
– ‘“You god damn tramp,” he said viciously.”
• Candy is referred throughout the novel as being weak and
old, also his ‘sniveling’, to give the reader a negative
impression
• This added to his apathy after Curley’s Wife has died makes
the reader think the opposite to the thoughts of Candy
• This very subtle technique used by Steinbeck makes the
reader sympathise and view Curley’s Wife as being a
misguided and lonely character
Conclusion
• Curley’s Wife is a misguided and
misjudged character
• Talk about the Miss Luce letter
–What Steinbeck was trying to convey
• Final personal opinion and input on
Curley’s Wife