How Did Curley's Wife Change Between Of Mice And Men

The 1920’s was a time of great change for women, how they lived, and the way they conducted themselves. The mentality of women and how they viewed their treatment of men was also drastically changed during this time. During the 20’s and 30s’ women began to show who they were; they did this by changing the way they dressed and how they looked overall. This change in appearence was used to show how women were tired of being under the control of men, it was in sorts, a rebel against everything previously thought of women. A perfect example of this shift in the mindset of women can be seen in John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”. His story is set in the time of the great depression, roughly the 1920’s and 1930’s, and involves a woman, Curley’s wife,

When describing Curley’s wife, Steinbeck uses this description, “She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung up in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets on red ostrich feathers” (Steinbeck 31). This depiction of Curley’s wife is very important to understanding her role, how she is seen, and how she exemplifies the roaring women of the 1920’s. Curley’s wife is chronicled as being covered in the color red from head toe. This color is very significant as to how others view her. The color red is seen as a very sensual and passionate color and this was reflected into how the men all saw her, a tart. By wearing red as well as makeup, Curley’s wife was seen as a floozy; making her all the more want to dress the way she wants to in order to stand up for herself. Curley’s wife, uses the color red, as well as her makeup, to show how tired she was of men telling her what to do and wear. By simply dressing in more “prerogative” clothing and doing her makeup a certain way, Curley’s wife was standing up for herself and the women of the

Being both lonely and misunderstood drives Curley’s wife to disobey and try to change the view people have of her and women in general. Curley, and all the other men on the farm, expect Curley’s wife to always be cooped up in the house and seldom leave. Given the fact that she is never allowed out of the house, Curley’s wife gets very lonely and in need of someone to just listen to her. She wishes more than anything to just have someone to talk to, so she goes to great lengths to achieve that. Curley’s wife is always out of the house and attempting to talk to everyone because she herself has no one to talk to. Men of this time only saw women as property and nothing else, so if a women even dares to talk to a man other than her husband, she is automatically shamed. The women of the time used their appearance and disobedience of their husbands to get human interaction and conversation. In order to talk to anyone, women had to put themselves in a position of