Curley's Wife Essay

Submitted By PeaceEvo
Words: 312
Pages: 2

She is newly married to Curley.
We never know her name - she is merely Curley's 'property' with no individual identity.
She is young, pretty, wears attractive clothes and curls her hair.
She seems flirtatious and is always hanging around the bunk-house.
She is lonely - there are no other women to talk to and Curley is not really interested in her.
"What kinda harm am I doin' to you? Seems like they ain't none of them cares how I gotta live. I tell you I ain't used to livin' like this. I coulda made somethin' of myself."
She doesn't like Curley - she tells Lennie that she only married him when she didn't receive a letter she'd been promised to get into Hollywood.
She is naive.
How does Steinbeck present the character of Curleys Wife?
In this essay I am going to be assessing the character Curleys Wife from Steinbeck’s book Of Mice And Men. The book is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression it features two farm workers called George and Lennie. The travel around together in search of work sharing a dream of a place of their own, a small ranch where they can live and work for themselves. It tells the story of how violence may erupt to destroy those dreams. Curleys wife is a character in the book who from the brief encounters with her is presented in two ways. Firstly the dangerous, flirtatious character who isn’t trusted by the rest of the ranch workers but then later one we realize how she is just a victim of loneliness with her being the only girl on the ranch