When talking about the meaning of the color red, Taylor Swift once said, “On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end, you've got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger, and frustration.” Swift’s perception of red is true in the novella Of Mice and Men. The color is repeated throughout the book when talking about women. Lennie, a main character, is often in trouble with women in red; they each symbolize something different but the same. Steinbeck includes the parallel scenes of the women in Weed and Curley’s wife to spread the message about the emotion red can evoke and how “the best schemes of mice and men often go askew.”
In the beginning, Steinbeck reveals that Lennie got
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Lennie, like others on the ranch, cannot help but stare at her when she walks into the bunkhouse because “her fingernails were red…and [she wore] red mules, on the in-steps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers” (11). George sees Lennie eyeing her and once she is out of earshot, he scolds him: “Listen to me…don’t you even take a look at [her]…I’ve seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her. Leave her be” (32). George tells Lennie this for his own sake and is trying to keep him out of trouble, so they do not have to run away as they did in Weed. George knows that women like Curley’s wife are up to no good and her use of red is a way to attract the men on the ranch. Red symbolizes love, danger, caution, warning, lust, and anger. These things are only going to get Lennie in trouble. However, at the end of the book, the readers get an inside look at Curley’s wife’s thoughts and her life before the ranch. She even learns to trust Lennie and lets him touch her hair. When Curley’s wife tells Lennie to stop, he doesn’t because it was “soft and fine” (90). Just like the girl in Weed, she panics. Lennie does his best to quiet her, but he accidentally kills her. Nevertheless, Lennie’s innocent intentions result in consequential