Unheard Voices The term marginalization is defined as “being pushed to the edge of society, so that your significance is reduced or ignored.” Many people who are classified as disabled, or of a minority are frequently victims of the aforementioned term. Marginalization affects may consist of not allowing for the voice and opinion of the people to lead to unforgiving consequences. In the novel Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, many characters are being reduced and ignored. Curley’s wife can be seen being ignored, therefore she acts out and is very slutty. In the same light, Lennie’s significance is reduced due to his mental impairment, however; he commits a wrongdoing that compromises his plans to furthering his life with George.…show more content… In the novel she is only ever referred to, by the characters and the author, as the aforementioned name. “Curley’s wife” is only one of the multitudinous of examples throughout the novel (Steinbeck 77). This is an example of her being marginalized due to the neglection of her name. Her significance to the other characters has been reduced so much that she is accounted as property of someone else. Another indication of Curley’s wife being marginalized is in how it affects her. She longs to acquire attention, evident in the way she presents herself, which is described as “heavily made up” and her “lips were slightly parted” which would indicate she was trying to be seductive(77). She is trying to push through the neglection she is receiving from people by presenting herself in this way. Towards the end of the novel, Curley’s wife and lennie were alone, and in this section, you can see how she is affected. While talking with Lennie, she says how she is “lonely” and also how she “can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he get mad”(87). This clues you in on her reduced significance even in her marriage, however this also shows how degraded she is and why she feels a need to acquire the attention she gets, also why she presents herself as she does. Not being addressed by her name, presenting herself in a floozy way, suffering in a degrading marriage and feeling lonely all contribute
