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Limitation Of Women In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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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 a character known as “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 a ranch full of men but she also has to deal with only being known as a possession to her husband and to the others. “Curleys wife” (Pg 79) represents how they do not respect her enough to call her by her own name showing how much she lacks an identity of her own and is treated as a piece of property to her husband making it hard for her to do what she wants without being critiqued by the men on the farm. Another way Steinbeck objectifys Curley 's wife is by using specific vocabulary “Don’t you even take a look at that bitch. I don 't care what she says and what she does. I seen em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her. You leave her be.” (Pg 32) Through this quote Steinbeck is able to reveal the …show more content…

Notably, Steinbeck also isolates Curley 's wife from everyone on the ranch because she has to stay at home while everyone is out working and Curly does not want his wife to talk to anybody except for him, but since he is always working, it pressures her to talk to others and be rebellionent since she gets lonely by herself. “I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely” (Pg 85). “I get lonely, you can talk to people, but I can 't talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How 'd you like not to talk to anybody?" (Pg 87 ). Steinbeck reveals how Curley 's wife is being isolated in this quote by her acknowledging how lonely she is and how she can not talk to anybody but Curley and if she were he would get mad at not only her but whoever she

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