Her hair hung in little rolled clusters…………. “I’m looking for Curley” she said’, this shows that she has no place in the ranch and the fact that she dresses so inappropriately for ranch life emphasises her misplacement and how contrasted she is to the ranch. The way she dresses so inappropriately also brings attention to the fact that she is flaunting herself shamelessly around the ranch hands when she is supposedly ‘looking’ for Curley, ‘she bridled a little……… She smiled archly and twitched her body’, this causes speculations that she only uses Curley as an excuse when in actual fact she wants the ranch hands to swoon over her. She is very
In the John Steinbeck’s novel “of Mice and Men” he introduces us to the character of Curley’s wife. She could be interpreted as a mis-fitting character in the novel as no one relates to her. Steinbeck relates her to how women were powerless during 1930’s and makes her seem desperately lonely and isolated from the others on the ranch. She has sexual power which she uses to get to the men on the ranch and she just needs someone to talk to. She dislikes her husband and had a desire to become a movie star.
Curley’s wife would always try to show more of herself, and of course the reaction of the men was to call her a “tramp” and a “rat trap”. This is also subtly changing the readers view. We can see that all the men on the Ranch feel the same way about her. Steinbeck almost puts you in the position of Lennie and George, so whenever she insults them, so also insults you, further exaggerating what you feel about Curley’s wife. For example, when she says “They left all the weak ones here” all the men ignore her to let her know that she isn’t wanted, and Crooks tells her to get out.
The title "Of Mice and Men". Firstly Steinbeck portrays Curley's wife as a lonely character. Newly married and in a strange place, she is forbidden by Curley to talk to anyone but him. To counter this, she constantly approaches the ranch hands on the excuse of looking for Curley. The only result is that the men regard her as a "slut", and Curley becomes even more intensely jealous.
When Lennie is in the barn because he killed the puppy Curley’s wife walks in and starts talking to Lennie. “…Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.”(86) In doing this Curley’s wife is coming right out and telling Lennie that she is lonely and just wants someone to talk to. Curley’s wife is always looking for someone just to talk to because she doesn’t have anything better to do.
Paragraph 2 Candy’s first description of Curley’s wife is reinforced by Steinbeck’s description of her on page 53. She is presented by Steinbeck as having ‘full, rouged lips’ and ‘eyes heavily made up’ with ‘red fingernails’. She is also described as wearing a ‘cotton house dress’ with ‘red mules’ with bouquets of red ostrich feathers on the insteps. The amount of red incorporated into her outfit is very symbolic of her passionate and dangerous persona. When Steinbeck describes Curley’s wife as having hair hung in little rolled clusters; this is similar to her husband’s style of hair which is very Curly.
As the men are working on the fields all day Curley’s Wife has nothing to do but hang around. Her own way of solving this problem was to become flirtatious. This meant talking to the men more and wearing more makeup to get their attention. Curley’s Wife is portrayed through her appearance, conversations with other characters, and what other characters say about her. Curley’s Wife’s appearance and actions around the ranch workers portrays her to be trampy.
This indicates that he is keeping his hand soft for his wife’s sexual pleasure, which proves that Curley sees his wife as nothing more than a sexual object. The “glove fulla Vaseline” can also be seen as an attempt to make the other men on the ranch jealous of what Curley has and it is a constant reminder of how Curley can have sex with his wife whenever he wants and does not have to go into town and go to a brothel to get attention from a woman, like the other men on the ranch have to. Curley’s wife is represented as a sexual object; the property of her aggressive and possessive husband. Candy continues to paint a negative picture of Curley’s Wife to George and Lennie. “Married two weeks and got the eye?
Everyone on the ranch called Curleys Wife a ''tart'' because she flirts and the ranch men said ''Shes got the eyes''. Nobody on the ranch understood Curley's Wife and seen that Curley made her life very unpleasant, the only reason Curley's Wife flirted with other men was because Curley made her feel so isolated and alone. She had no friends or anyone to talk to on the ranch and Curley treated her as more of a possesion than his
Because of her apparent sexuality, the men on the ranch ignore and never want anything to do with her. But because she is Curley's wife and Curley is an easily wound up former boxer, they see her as trouble. All of the men are sure that she would try to seduce them and then they would get in trouble and be fired by the boss. So, she's only ever allowed to talk to Curley and always feels lonely because of it. She doesn't like Curley in the least and doesn't enjoy being around him.