Curley's Wife Language Analysis

Steinbeck’s description and language of the first appearance of Curley’s wife give the readers a negative impression and hatred towards her. The contrast between her appearance “full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up” and “cotton house dress and red mules”, with the filthy environment of the ranch suggests strong sexuality and flirtation. “Heavily made up” is often associated with a prostitute and by using this phrase to describe Curley’s wife, Steinbeck wants to convince the audience that she is trying to catch the ranch men attentions in order to sleep with them. In the ranch, the workers’ clothes are offten made out of denim for toughness. However, Curley’s wife wanders around the ranch in a “red”, which symbolises strong coquetry, cotton house dress. The softness of “cotton” also emphasises on Curley’s wife’s wants to be physically touched. In addition, this type of clothing implies

She always starts her conversation by asking “You guys seen Curley anywhere?”. The readers feel her irresponsibility immediately since the stereotype of a wife in that time is taking care of her husband. By repeating that question over and over, the readers feel like she doesn’t care about her husband. Therefore, their hatred automatically is poured on her head. Beyond that, there’s another interpretation of her action. Her wonders about where her husband is, is real. However, she only wants to know if he can see her wandering around or not. She knows that she is not allowed to go out but still risks it only to flirt with other men. Not just that, she uses the workers to ensure her safety from Curley and that she is not caught trying to chat with the ranch workers. Although she is being clever, the audience still hate her since marrying means the couple trust each other and that action of Curley’s wife shows the opposite of what she is supposed to