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Changing Gender Roles In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Women

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Of Mice and Women The literature of the 1930’s illustrates the American woman staying in the home to provide for those who depend on her instead of joining the workforce to support them through a job (Walker). This image does not tell the whole story about the role that American women played during Great Depression.The Great Depression changed the gender roles in American society, specifically the role of the American woman from at home moms to taking over the workforce and developing a sense of independence among themselves. Overall the hardships of the Great Depression were felt by the women of America, but the impact was felt by each woman uniquely due to the different lives that all women live. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses the character of Curley’s Wife to represent the gender roles …show more content…

A prominent change occurred during the Great Depression that would change the role of the American woman into what it is now. In the 1930’s it was seen that the male of a household was the one at work working hard to collect enough money for the family while the wife worked at home caring for children and trying her best to support her family as well. However, this image is not always true in a sense that some women were single moms that either their husband left or they had gotten a divorce. In order for a woman to provide for her family whether or not she had a husband, she most likely joined the workforce to contribute some cash flow to the family (Ware). Once World War II came around the women supplied the needed work to the workforce created by the need for soldiers to fight the war (Harrison). This significant growth of involvement of women in the workforce was shown

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1136 Words | 5 Pages

The novella Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, tells of the story of how individuals were alienated during the Great Depression, including an unnamed farm wife married to a man named Curley. She is simply identified as “Curley’s wife.” Being the only woman on the farm has caused her to be a sexualized object, have a great sense of loneliness, and feel that she will never live up to her dreams. The characterization, actions, and treatment of Curley’s wife depicts how women were kept from achieving their own American Dream in the sexist society of the 1930s. Through the characterization of Curley’s wife a reader can see that she is sexualized, desires to be dominant, and has suffered throughout her life.

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591 Words | 3 Pages

Although Steinbeck uses all his “Of Mice and Men” characters to criticize society, Curley’s Wife is the character who points out the most glaring flaws. She shows this in her actions, her background, and her attitude towards the men and herself. In the novelette, the reader is introduced to Curley’s Wife as just that. Curley’s Wife, despite being her own person with motives and feelings, is never called by name.

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816 Words | 4 Pages

In the novella ‘Of mice and men’ by John Steinbeck, two men George and Lennie, have many limitations in life. George and Lennie end up on a farm where they meet people who also have limitations, one of those people happens to be a character known as “Curley 's wife”. Steinbeck crafts Curley 's wife as a sexualized object in order to reveal that women are dehumanized and thus excluded from the American Dream. Not only Does Curley 's wife have to deal with being the only women on a ranch full of men

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1605 Words | 7 Pages

The purpose of this document is to show that women are helping in duties outside the household. This is important because this was unconventional at the time. Additonally, there is a chart that shows that there was a significant increase in jobs held by women in professional fields such as clerical, professional, service, and sales workers which shows that women were climbing up the ladder in terms of jobs. This increase in women in the workforce is further confirmed with the drop in jobs such as household, factory, and farm workers (Doc 3B). Women are now taking on more professional jobs that were typically for men and that alone is a significant change.

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993 Words | 4 Pages

There are few words more loaded with history and personal connotation than racism or sexism. Whether you are using it to examine the past, explain the present, or predict the future, just using the word often draws out emotion from people of all walks of life. Though it is a sensitive topic, it is an important one. Mice and Men is the story of George and Lennie, two friends that travel from farm to farm, looking for work, in the hopes that one day they will have enough money to buy their own farm. But Mice and Men also contains a supporting cast, all of them with their own fears and desires.

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547 Words | 3 Pages

Were racism and sexism that different on a California ranch 1930’s? In the novel Of Mice and Men, there is evidence of both sexism and racism throughout the story. Curley’s wife and Crooks are both characters who have first witnessed these views first hand. The two characters might be very similar in many ways but they also have differences. Even though Crooks and Curley’s wife are treated in the same ways one of them is not as badly treated as the other.

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477 Words | 2 Pages

John Steinbeck intentionally strips the women in the novella of their names, instructing audiences to view these women’s roles as limited. Not even once does Curley, her husband, refer to her by her name, only asking the workers, “[If] You seen a girl around here?”. Curley doesn’t respect her as an individual, only viewing her as an accessory to himself, the others follow this belief, hence the simplistic title of “Curley’s wife”. She is also described as having “full, red lips.” and her fingernails being painted red.

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1930’s the Depression of Women From physical and mental abuse to injustice, females regardless of any race or color became one of the main groups in society considered divergent and negligible--much like the discrimination that has segrated African Americans from the rest of society. In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck stresses how much men and civilization both negalted women. By using serveral senerios within the novel to show how most of the men felt and thought about Curley’s wife. Even though Curley’s wife was only a minor female character in the novel, her role as a woman was not only important to both the reader but also women. In order to show and represent the role of women Steinbeck purposely left out Curley’s

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1303 Words | 6 Pages

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men illustrates the downfall of two lonely men. who have only each other to depend upon. Many of George and Lennie’s struggles come from things they cannot control, such as Lennie’s mental illness and the fact that both men are stuck in the dead-end pursuit of rural labor in 1930’s America. However, the greatest tragedy in this story comes from the simple fact that Lennie is left alone with Curley’s wife because Curley’s wife is the true villain in Of Mice and Men; she alone causes the trouble that leads to Lennie’s death. In his novella, Steinbeck examines the different ways that men and women express their power, and while the men in his tale rely upon the power of physical strength to assert their place in society,

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842 Words | 4 Pages

Did you ever wonder why it was hard for Women to get a job in the 1930s and around that time? In the 1930’s timeframe, women were looked at differently, they were looked at weaker than men and people believed that if they had a high paid job or even just a job they were taking the job away from men. They could also be judged on if they were married or not and that would affect them getting a job. Gender roles and stereotypes affect women getting jobs in the 1930s depending on if they are married or not, their race, and because men are the “breadwinners.” Gender roles and stereotypes affect women getting jobs in the 1930s depending on if they are married or not.

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1306 Words | 6 Pages

John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, takes place during the Great Depression in the 1930’s, in the Salinas Valley, California. It establishes the prospect of the American Dream, discrimination,loneliness, and disenfranchisement through its characters. George and Lennie provided the value of the American Dream, to which the leading female role, Curley’s wife, represents how women are exempt from the American Dream, and appeared as less than equal to men. She developed a form of loneliness throughout the course of the novel. The novella seeks to demonstrate the way of which life was like for the characters of all different statuses and backgrounds.

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953 Words | 4 Pages

The women shown by Steinback are Curley’s Wife, Susy, and Aunt Clara and are given somewhat respect. Even though there are not many female characters, John Steinbeck symbolizes them as archetypes throughout the book he indicates sexism of women being at the bottom of the social hierarchy in a male workplace. Although all women in the novel are portrayed differently, on some level as authority figures, they differ in the amount of respect received

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1001 Words | 5 Pages

The book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck took place in California during the Great Depression. The Great Depression started because the stock markets crashed all around the world. The United States didn’t recover until 12 years later, the end 1939. Most people had poor living conditions and women didn’t have many rights during that time period. Many of the children had to leave school to help support their families on the farm doing farm work.

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607 Words | 3 Pages

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” - Alice Walker In Chapter 4 of Of Mice and Men race and gender are depicted in different ways symbolizing different character behaviors.

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973 Words | 4 Pages

World of Sexism Due to the Great Depression, women’s rights took a back seat to employment and poverty. It was believed that women shouldn’t work but stay at home, clean, cook, and raise their children. The prejudice against women in the society was great back in the 1930s for they were degraded and underestimated. All the rights they had gained in the 1920s were neglected and the women were once again maltreated. In Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the victim of sexism is Curley’s wife who is so insignifact that even a name was not provided for her.

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