Feminism In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men is a story by John Steinbeck, set in early twentieth century California. The book is set during the Great Depression Lennie Small is a hardworking, but mentally disabled man who is friends with George Milton, a man that protects Lennie. Lennie and George are inseparable throughout the book, until Lennie is in trouble due to a woman and George cannot help him. In this novel, there is only one woman who is given lines. She is called names, described vulgarly, and is blamed for situations. She is a symbol of women during those times. The woman in the novel, Of Mice and Men, is Curley’s wife. She is married to a man of short stature who likes to fight taller men. Curley's wife since the beginning of the book is called a tart and is said to “have the eye” and that she gives the eye to the workers even though she got married a couple of weeks ago, according to the old swamper (Steinbeck 28). The old swamper, Candy, and the other workers could be saying that because during the Great Depression, women were to stay home and raise children. For the most part, men were anti-feminists, one who is opposed to the equality of women with men in regards to politics, social, and economy. When Curley’s wife was said to give the eye, she was outside her home, where she was obliged to stay

She is just like Crooks, Crooks is lonely because of his race, well Curley’s wife is lonely because she is a woman. As a woman she wants someone to talk to like Crooks said, “a guy talkin’ to another guy and it don’t make no difference if he don’t hear or understand…”(Steinbeck 71). Curley’s wife is just a victim of the world she lives in, but men view her as a danger to it, which prompts her to be a danger to them. She is only that way because she is outraged that she cannot talk to men, without them thinking that she is hitting on them. Due to misogynists, women during the Great Depression also felt this