Of Mice and Men Is Curleys Wife a Victim or Villian free essay sample

John Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife at the start of the story as an irrelevant character because she has no relation with George and Lennie. At the start, Curley is one of the most important characters (besides George and Lennie) because he has the power to crush George and Lennie’s dream of having a farm of your own. But as the story goes on, to end, we see the importance of her character and that everything that has happened on the ranch is caused by her presence; even though she is not in the story as much as others, she has a long lasting effect on the other characters. She is mentioned in the story a lot because of how she would acted around the men working in the ranch. In the end, we knew Lennie and George were not going to get a farm of their own because of how Lennie is drown to trouble all the time but we ultimately find out that it’s Curly’s wife that crushes George and Lennie’s dreams when Lennie kills her. We will write a custom essay sample on Of Mice and Men: Is Curleys Wife a Victim or Villian? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Again her presence caused a lot of trouble in the ranch which furthermore kills Lennie and their dream. She is a defined as a villain by how she is pruned to flirt and seeks attention from anyone she comes across. She is racist and mean to some of the workers e. g. Crooks and Candy, because she knows even though she is not liked; she has the power to make their lives a living hell. She is also considered a victim because before she dies, she talks to Lennie about how she had all these dreams about becoming an actress and being famous; and as the reader we see her true self and we see that deep down she is a kind and lovely person. We then know that she is only flirtatious and mean to the men because she is just trying to have bond with someone because Curly has commanded her not to talk to anyone; this made her lonely and bitter. Her racist remarks to Crooks wasn’t only because of her bitter behaviour, but because in her times black people were not treated well anyway. Steinbeck presents Curly’s wife as a trouble maker and a pest but he also made her a very complex character and in the end we find out she is one of the most important character in the whole story because it only takes her presence to excite the audience. Paragraph one Curly’s wife is needed in the novel to create suspense and drama with the men, which ultimately makes the story a lot more interesting. Because she is extremely flirtatious with almost everyone in the ranch, her husband, Curly gets jealous and angry; this would probably cause the workers to fear him more because in that state of anger, he could fire them which could render them homeless and foodless causing them to suffer on the streets or even die. Curly’s wife is a very interesting and complex character to understand because we automatically think that she is just flirtatious and a bad wife to Curly but as the story goes on we understand that it’s not all her fault that she is like that and I think that Steinbeck is trying to put across is that women were not treated well; an example of this is the most obvious and unnoticed sign is her name, though out the whole novel we know and call her ‘Curley’s wife’ because no one respects her enough to call her by her true name. Also the only other women mentioned in the novel are the stripper, who we also don’t know the names of and Aunt Clara who raised lennie up before she died, this shows that women were viewed with no respect when this book was written and that men were represented dominate among the two genders. Curly’s wife develops the plot by just being there, we find out that she is still a bit new at the ranch and already she has got all the men talking and thinking about her in a horrible way, but I think that most of them also think of her in a sexual way because she is beautiful and the only women they would see in the day (besides the strippers on the Friday trip to the bar) so it would have been expected of them to think that; but they would not mention it because they don’t wasn’t the other workers thinking that they have bad taste in women or something similar to that and also the fact that she is married to the boss’s son, who could fire them from the ranch if he hears that one of the works has feelings for his wife. Steinbeck also describes the problems in the world by using Curly’s wife, everything Curly’s wife has said or done and not even done shows the reader how the world was like then and how it has changed a lot now. Sexism and racism were two of the most important factors Curly’s wife brought to the novel, we see how women were treated with no respect and were just looked upon as just objects with no feelings and they were for men to push around; we also see that this truly affects curly’s wife by the fact that the only way for her to get noticed, is to act like flirtatious and mean to everyone. Racism is approached in the novel by the fact that crooks is not treated the same as everyone else, curly’s wife calls him a racist name and threatens to hang him if he back chat her again. This shows that even though women were treated badly, but black people were treated worse. Maybe some women expressed their anger with society and how they were treated on black people because in Steinbeck’s days, no one would care if you mistreat a black person. In the novel almost everyone has a dream and in the end, everyone’s dreams are crushed because of curly’s wife pres ence. Life was tough in George and Lennie’s times and the only way for people to stay hopeful was to create a dream that will motivate them to keep living; mostly everyone’s dream was to own a farm of their own and to have an easy life where they don’t have to work in the fields for food or money. George and lennie had this dream, of having a farm of their own and because of them, crooks and candy also became hopeful for this dream to come true. Curly’s wife also had a dream of becoming rich and famous through acting but her dream did not come true and been through a lot before she figured out that her dream is less likely to come true. When curly’s wife makes her first appearance, Steinbeck describes as this beautiful women with nice clothes and a pretty face. She wears a lot of red like the girl lennie abused which Steinbeck planned to foreshadow Curley’s wife death. George had a bad feeling about her because of the way she was flouting her body around to get their attention, her attempt to get one of the men’s attention worked as lennie fell upon her spell. I think that steinback chose’s to introduce curly’s wife at that time because lennie and George have just put the incident with the little girl in the red dress behind them and her appearance has foreshadowed events that could lead them to a lot of trouble like last time. Steinbeck uses a range of creative language to describe Curley’s wife when we first see her to make the reader imagine her as a beautiful young lady. He describes her has heavily made up, wide spaced eyes, nasal brittle voice with red fingernails. This makes her seem like she is trying too hard to be beautiful, as the reader we can see why they call her a tart because she is seeking too much attention to herself when she is married, she also throws her body forward in the scene which makes her look even more of a tart. Also she use’s verbal remarks to make other feel worse about themselves so she can feel better about herself, this makes her seem like a villain. We can also see her as a victim because the only reason people would seek attention because her husband wasn’t the friend she was hoping for and she is not getting enough attention from him. Also she is only allowed to say in the house so she can’t make any friends of her own and she is judge too quickly because she has only been on the ranch for 2 weeks. Steinbeck Is showing us that women didn’t have much say in decisions that concerned them, which made women feel unimportant. She also is called a girl when she is described which could mean that she is too young to be married and the reason she wears too much make-up is to hide her true self from the rest of the men and herself. The first time we hear about Curley’s wife was when Candy calls her a tart because of how she is always flirtatious with the other men, and frankly most of the men on the ranch think of her as a tart who should be more sensible because she is married. This reflection of her is not 100% true but what the other see her as. In the novel, the narrator never calls her a tart because Steinbeck is trying to show us that her being a tart is only the point of view of the men and is not a fact. I think Steinbeck did this because he wants to show the reader how easily women were judge on their actions then the men, for example if a man slept with a women without marring her, he would not be judge as much if it was a woman who slept with someone before marriage. Her relationship with Curley isn’t the typical ‘new wed’ situation but just pointless. It is very clear to the reader that there is no real emotions to this relationship we never see them kiss or even spend time with each other. When she was talking to lennie, she talked about her hopes and dreams for the future and how she felt trapped living with her mother, she also says that men have said to her that she was ‘a natural’ and one man said he will write to her from Hollywood, they also went to riverside dance palace which could mean that he slept with her so she can believe that he will write but he didn’t, this makes her seem gullible. urley’s wife suspected that her mo ther hid the letters so she won’t go to Hollywood, this caused curley’s wife to leave her mother and that same night she met curley and married him to be free from the trap she was in; but unfortunately she became even more trap then before. On page 97 she tells lennie that she doesn’t like and on page 89 she says ‘I’m glad you bust up Curley a little bit. He got it comin’ to him. Sometimes I’d like to bust him myself’. This response on Curley’s injury might possibly mean that Curley irritates her and probably hits her on occasions. Her relationship with slim is very friendly but flirtatious at the same time. e find out about their relationship the same time curly’s wife made her first appearance; the reason steinback introduced their relationship at that time is because before we meet curly’s wife we find out that curly is an aggressive character and the type of person who would get jealous over a small mat ter. We also find out that he knows boxing which would make him confident when it comes to a fight. I think without curly’s wife, lennie won’t of died but is obviously clear that his death was inevitable; if it wasn’t curly’s wife, then it was going to be someone else’s life lost at Lennie’s hands ultimately killing him in the process but he won’t of died at the end of the novel if Curley’s wife didn’t not die. I think the most dramatic part of the novel was when Curley’s wife and lennie had a moment of happiness and peace together bother she died because at that point we see her true self and how see was just a normal girl who made bad choses in her life. We also see that all she wanted was to have a friend to talk about her feelings. She was lonely like everybody else; loneliness had a massive part to play in the novel as everyone was lonely, Curley’s wife, crooks, candy after his dog died and George after lennie died. I think that candy’s dog foreshowed Lennie’s death because the dag was like lennie, difficult to live with and candy is like George, alone when lennie died. I think Steinbeck showed us Curley’s wife true self before her death because he wanted us to feel pit and sorrow for her and to make us feel guilty with ourselves for judging her so quickly and to think poorly of her. We also feel happy because we think that she will stop her games with the other men and start being herself but as we read on, we see that the happy ending we truly wanted for Curley’s wife, lennie and George and the rest of the men was about to die right in front of their eyes as lennie kills curley’s wife. At this point the reader feels anger and pity towards her death because we wanted her to make her dream come true and we also know that lennie and George’s dream of a farm of their own is also never coming true. We also realise that the other men on the ranch will never know how nice and caring Curley’s wife was and they will always remember her as trouble and a tart. Overall I think that Steinbeck created Curley’s wife to show how mistreated the women of 1930’s were treated and this teaches us that women were judge and talked about in a cruel manner. We also learn that their relationships with their husbands are not as easy as they are now because in the 1930’s, men had a lot of say in the relationship and it was custom to women to feel the orders the men have commanded them to do. I think Steinbeck wanted us to feel sympathy to Curley’s wife because she has been though a lot in her short life and that she died through her act of kindness makes us feel sorry for her. I think that Steinbeck wanted us to ultimately see her as a victim in this whole novel because she is treated badly and that no one wants to talk to her, not even her husband. Steinbeck wasn’t trying to be sexist but want to show his readers who badly women were treated and how small things can have massive consequences in life.