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

It begins with two men named George and Lennie who have moved to work on a new ranch. Unfortunately for them, Lennie has a mental disability which causes his brain to function as a child’s brain, this disability creates many conflicts throughout the novella. They met many characters that were divergent from the rest of the workers, such as Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Candy. Steinbeck used dialogue between characters to present his belief that loneliness and isolation are caused by both social barriers and personal choice. Candy is set apart from the rest of the workers due to his old age and his strong bond with his dog who eventually was killed.

She lives on the ranch with everyone else and just wants to make friends but everyone fears Curley and tries to avoid her. Curley's Wife is the loneliest character in Of Mice and Men. One reason Curley’s Wife is the loneliest is because her name is never stated. As much as this could mean that the guys at the ranch just did not care enough to ask her what her name is, this just proves that she is lonely. Curley's wife is first brought up when Candy says ‘“Wait’ll you see Curley's Wife”’(Steinbeck 28).

As one of the most popular of steinbeck 's books, Of Mice and Men tells a story about how two migrant workers named George and Lennie overcame the struggles of finding work in the early 1900s. Steinbeck uses descriptive language and relates women and migrant workers to having a difficult life because of what they have to overcome to find work and survive in general. In 1938, one year after the work was published Of Mice of Men won the New York Drama Critics Award (“Steinbeck” 8). This was not all well and Jolly, this lead to much criticism that Steinbeck was blind to. Some Critics said that his work was “considered in the literary tradition of Social Realism” and “usually economic” (“Of Mice” 253).

His behaviour and mindset following the revelation that his dream is no longer obtainable clearly indicate that George no longer believes in his dream, he has acknowledged the fact that his dream is no longer attainable. When George discovers that Lennie has killed Curley’s wife, he ignores Candy’s pleas to maintain hope that their dream can come true, rather he begins to envision himself living the life of a lonely migrant farm worker. A quote that illustrates this belief can be found on page 93 where George states “I’ll work my month an’ I’ll take my fifty bucks an’ I’ll stay all night in some lousy cat house. Or I’ll set in some pool room till ever’body goes home. An’ then I’ll come back an’ work another month an’ I’ll have fifty bucks more.” Here John Steinbeck uses repetition to make it abundantly clear to the reader that George has forsaken his dream, and chosen to become the lonely farm worker he once felt empathy towards.

The book is full of tragedies ranging from Jurgis losing his job to the death of his wife and child. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair successfully shows how the working class was affected by capitalistic America, by the lack of safety standards, and

Curley 's wife wanders the ranch desperate; searching for a smile or even an acknowledgment that she exists. She is surrounded by a world of men being in charge of the farm and working in the fields. She is in the property of one man; Curley. “Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about two men, Lennie Small and George Milton, who travel place to place, job to job to pay for their dream. They end up on a ranch where they meet many people, including Curley's Wife, the only woman on the ranch. Steinbeck utilizes Curley’s Wife to prove that women didn’t have any chance of acquiring the American Dream because of the sexist society in the 1930’s. Being the only woman on a ranch full of men seems like a nightmare, even now. Can you imagine doing it when the sexism was even worse than it is now?

Curley’s wife is lonely because she is all alone on the ranch; far away from her friends and any distractions in the town. Curley’s wife fits into this theme. She is isolated from the men on the ranch because she is female, but also because she craves attention and the men do not want to get in trouble with Curley by giving his wife the wrong attention. Steinbeck describes her in an unflattering way and the other men use

Secondly, when she is talking to Lennie, she is talking about how lonely she is at the farm because she doesn’t, “like Curley” (89). She talks about how her career as a dancer was cut short, and that marring Curley was a backup plan incase her dancing career does not work. She was sort of forced into marrying Curley, and now she says that, “I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad” (87). She is being forced to be alone by Curley; she even states that, “I get Lonely” (87).

The stock market crash and the Great Depression are indirect consequences of Prohibition and the effects it caused throughout the nation. However, life in Tennessee had been difficult for a long period of time before the stock market crash. A long drought had swept through the state and caused many of the farmers to give up farming and turn to illegal bootlegging and other activities in order to make a living. Bootlegging was a dangerous and hazardous occupation that is seen in the quote, “behind him the siren sounded again, louder and with a new sense of urgency. I never tried it in the rain, he was thinking.