Curley’s wife is the wife of the Bosses son, Curley. In the novel Curley’s wife represents different themes such as loneliness, innocence and dreams. We learn this as we are introduced to her character and learn her story. Her overall purpose in the book is simple- she is a ‘tramp’, who ruins mens happiness however as her character develops, she becomes more complex and we learn about her vulnerability and innocence. Steinbeck also shows the portrayal of women in 1930s America, showing that women were treated as objects and could only get attention through their physical appearance. We are first introduced to her at the same time that George meets her, giving the reader a first point of view of her character ‘She had full rouged lips… She wore a cotton house dress and red mules … red ostrich feathers.’ From …show more content…
She uses her power to dominate over Crooks, Lennie and Candy ‘left all the weak ones here’ this signifies that, similarly to Curley, she likes to stir trouble and mock people who are weaker than her to make herself feel better and boost her confidence, however this is showing the reader the opposite of what Curley’s wife wants us to think, it shows that internally she is damaged and lack confidence and happiness. In this chapter, Curley’s wife picks on all the characters, she firstly points out Candy’s old age and calls him a ‘lousy ol’ sheep’ showing her disrespecting character to the elderly, this could be because she doesn’t get any respect and so treats people like they treat her. Moreover, she uses her power to threaten Crooks, who is the only black character in the novella, ‘I could get you strung up on a tree’ this illustrates the verbal abuse black Americans had to endure in the 1930s society. Overall in this chapter, we see that Curley’s wife is self-obsessed and lives in her own word, she feeds on other people to make herself look better in her own