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Examples Of Curley's Wife Marginalisation

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How does the fact that Curley’s wife stays unnamed throughout the story add to the theme of marginalisation. We have been looking at the book “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. The book is set in Depression Era United States. It is about two migrant workers George and Lennie. In this essay I will explore the use of marginalisation in particular about Curley’s wife and how she is marginalised. We are first introduced to Curley’s wife on page 32. “She had full, rouged and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up lips” In this quotation Curley’s wife is shown in a bad light as people who are often heavily made up are to a certain extent fake and maybe want to hide something about themselves. The second part is that she has rouged lips, this means …show more content…

George says “Jesus, what a tramp” This reaction to her appearance is that he doesn’t see a pretty girl but a provocative women and he goes on to describe her a “Bitch”, this demonstrates that he straight away thinks she has bad intentions just from the way she is dressed. Because of this you could infer that Steinbeck wants your first impression of her to be bad. This ties in with what Candy says shortly afterwards “Bet she’d clear out for 20 buck”, this supports what George says and demonstrates that the men think that she is disloyal and flirtatious, this is supported by what Candy says before we are introduced to Curley’s Wife “I seen her give slim the eye”. Highlighting how she is flirtatious to the men in not only the way she …show more content…

She is describes as being “sweet and young” and “simple and pretty”, illustrating that maybe she was at all that what the men describe her, also now the rouged cheeks and reddened lips fulfilled a different role where the more negative connotations from the first time this description was used, “Now her rouged cheeks and her reddened lips made her seem alive and sleeping very lightly.”. They now fulfilled a much more positive role of showing that some was alive when they actually aren’t. “And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face”. This highlights that she may have been cunning and discontent with her life but when that would be removed she was a pretty and sweet person and emphasizes what she said to Lennie before he killed her about how her life is. How that she only married Curley to get away from her mother and not because of love, and also she says “I don’ like Curley”. This brings across that maybe her life isn’t nice and she maybe talks to the guys so much so that she can get away from Curley or maybe she is only looking for company as she is the only woman on the

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932 Words | 4 Pages

She is constantly searching for her husband, hoping that she can turn “any of you boys seen Curley” into a conversation starter (38). In some cases it works, but she is usually quickly shut out. The only time she manages to get in more than a few words with the men is in the barn with Lennie, where Steinbeck reveals a side of her not seen elsewhere in the book. Throughout the rest of the story she is put together and composed, a mirage sent from Old Hollywood, but here she is blatantly upset, wondering “what’s the matter with me?”(43). A part of her shines through that isn’t usually seen.

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873 Words | 4 Pages

Outliers in Of Mice and Men Imagine living in a place where you are different from everybody else. How would you feel? Wouldn't you feel lonely, different, unwanted? This is exactly how the two characters, Crooks and Curley’s wife feel in the outstanding novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Of Mice and Men tells a tale about laborers in Salinas, California in the dusty vegetables fields and river valleys.

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1017 Words | 5 Pages

The men on the farm try to stay away from her because they think she’s trying to flirt with them and they don’t want to get in trouble with the boss or get in a fight with curly. She is a very lonely person and try’s to flirt with the other men on the farm because she has no one to talk to. Curley doesn’t care about her and treats her

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744 Words | 3 Pages

(Josselyn) Curley’s Wife can be mistaken for an antagonist in the story because she is only described through the men’s point of view. Workers on the ranch view her in one way: as a cause for trouble. The old sweeper, Candy, sheds his perspective on us when he describes her on page 32, saying, “Jesus, what a tramp. So that’s what Curley picks for a wife” (Steinbeck). As men arrive for work, they are flooded with the opinions of all of the existing others.

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385 Words | 2 Pages

In the book Curley’s Wife is portrayed as a whore and not much else. She is painted as an emotionless tramp who is looking to “get with” anyone she can. But in the movie she was in a very different situation. In the movie version she was a damsel in distress. The movie made you look at her in a different light.

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636 Words | 3 Pages

Curley’s wife is finds herself in an unlucky situation while attempting to befriend the “gentle” giant, Lennie, adding on to her already unfortunate past. She converses to Lennie of all her past plans, saying “‘I coulda made somethin’ of myself.’” Curley’s wife then reveals her backstory, how she nearly did make something of herself, with an actor or movie star husband, not some short-tempered, condescending control-freak. Following this, she dies because Lennie didn’t want her alerting the others to their location. What’s more, as readers follow the story, people see her as, states Candy, a “floozy,” which influences the opinion of how Curley’s wife is portrayed, a horrible, good-for-nothing whore.

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1402 Words | 6 Pages

Curley’s Wife and Mayella Ewell are two characters from two different novels, To Kill a Mockingbird and of Mice and Men that have the same role of exposing the isolation of certain members in society and the effect isolation has on them. The social injustice is shown through the similarities and differences of the two characters. To begin with, Curley’s wife has distinct and powerful characteristics that make her stand out. Curley 's Wife is a pretty woman who wears a lot of make up, her physical appearance in the book as described, “She had full rouged lips and wide spread eyes, heavily made up.” (Steinbeck, 31).

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763 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 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 the ranch full of men

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1443 Words | 6 Pages

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about two men, Lennie Small and George Milton, who travel place to place, job to job to pay for their dream. They end up on a ranch where they meet many people, including Curley's Wife, the only woman on the ranch. Steinbeck utilizes Curley’s Wife to prove that women didn’t have any chance of acquiring the American Dream because of the sexist society in the 1930’s. Being the only woman on a ranch full of men seems like a nightmare, even now. Can you imagine doing it when the sexism was even worse than it is now?

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1378 Words | 6 Pages

Curley’s wife is portrayed to be a “tart”, someone who is always flirting with other people. When she is first introduced, Steinbeck writes “ The rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off”, which gives the impression that Curley’s wife is ominous and perilous for Lennie and George. The imagery implies that Curley’s wife is the darkness in their lives and that she is the obstacle in the journey of accomplishing the American Dream. During the climax of Steinbeck’s novella, he writes “ The light was growing soft now” represents the slow release of her soul and that darkness slowly filling the barn and their lives. It also indicates the gradual discharge of hope and belief from the minds of Lennie, George and Candy.

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934 Words | 4 Pages

“No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself” (John Steinbeck). John Steinbeck, American author of local color novella Of Mice and Men, attempts to give voice to and normalize victims, the “other human beings,” of the 1930s American social standards. Pariahs of the Great Depression period are introduced throughout the laborious journey embarked on,with the aim of achieving the conventional American Dream, by Lennie Smalls and George Milton. Although their positions in the culture of the ranch are very different, Crooks, Candy and Curley’s wife are similar in that each represents an outcast who is scorned by mainstream culture and struggle to find a comfortable “place” in society.

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370 Words | 2 Pages

Section five – GoodCurley’s wife (Can she be redeemed) Curley’s wife is the only one to blame for her actions; she is always taking her anger out on people, meanly Crooks. She never say’s sorry or asks for forgiveness, although she is the only female on the ranch Steinbeck wants us to feel sympathy for her as she cannot get along with known body and she’s a house wife that’s extremely isolated with no one to convert. This is in evidence when she say’s “I get awful lonely.”

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833 Words | 4 Pages

The reader is positioned to view her negatively as she uses her beauty as power to seduce the workers on the farm and make her husband jealous. The men often complain about her throughout the novel, calling her names that no woman would ever appreciate. Candy tells George and Lennie his honest opinion of Curley’s wife, “You know what I think?” George did not answer. “Well, I think Curley’s married…a tart.”

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607 Words | 3 Pages

Curley’s wife, the only main female presented in the novella, is depicted as a harlot. The only other time females are mentioned is when they are mentioned as being ladies in whore houses. This depiction sets the tone for all females presented in the novella. Instead of being seen as a worker, women were mainly seen as man’s companion, and as a symbol for love, lust, and desire. In the novella Curley’s wife’s appearance is described as, “Her face heavily made up.

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755 Words | 4 Pages

The theme of authority is presented in several ways in the novel Of Mice and Men. The novel is set in 1930’s when there was a great depression that left people vulnerable and jobless so there were many migrant workers and figures of authority were needed. Society was very much male dominated and racism was prevalent so social minority’s at the time had little authority. In the novel, authority is presented though characters with power such as Slim and Curley; Lennie and George’s friendship and a lack of power is shown through minorities like Curley’s wife and Crooks. The intention of the author is to show the reader what it was like to live and work in the 1930’s as Steinbeck was himself a ranch worker like the men and how authority was important as it decided your place in society First of all, George has authority over Lennie; we learn this from the opening scene when George and Lennie ‘walked down in single file’

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