Curley's Wife Sexism

482 Words2 Pages

In John Steinbeck's story, Of Mice and Men, we follow two men, the mentally challenged Lennie and his caretaker George, as they try to achieve the “American Dream” of owning land and away from The Depression, which was the current event during the story’s time period of the 1930s. This story hits multiple points such as how Lennie’s childish nature causes problems for certain people, and how Curly’s Wife seems to be a walking troublemaker. But what’s the real story? What’s the true meaning of such themes? In this essay, such themes like Lennie’s mental instability, Curly’s Wife’s emotional abuse/loveless marriage, and the racism toward Crooks will be pointed out and how they relate to today’s times and human right’s issues. Throughout the …show more content…

How Curly only seems to be concerned with controlling her and not loving her, giving the stage of emotional abuse that’s actually worse than physical because it can internally mess her up mentally, which never happened fortunately. She’s not allowed to talk to anybody else, expected to be a housewife, give Curly kids, the social norm of the 1930s. In today’s issue, this is called sexism and still exists to this day, making it a major human rights issue because some men still believe they’re superior and women are meant to be property who only obey the one they marry. Finally, and more importantly, is the issue with Crooks. Now, his scenario is thirty (30) years before the Civil Rights Movement and African-Americans were treated as less than dirt so him being isolated from everyone and mistreated was no surprise. However, this can connect to a human’s right issue because we still have racism to this day. It doesn’t take a genius to know that Crooks mistreatment was the social norm as well but no one can’t help but feel angry at such harshness. It’s reality though, and it’s seen everywhere. In conclusion, Of Mice and Men has three people who relate to today’s social and human issues that either mend and get better, like the mental disability rights, or get worse, like sexism and