Sexism In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men And The Pearl

As a result of being the wife of the boss’s son, Curley’s wife has nobody to talk to which leads to her isolation. Due to Lennie’s fascination towards Curley’s wife, George commands, “don’t you even take a look at that bitch. I don’t care what she says and what she does. I see ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her. You leave her be” (32).

The death of Curley’s wife is a very shocking event which is what triggers George’s decision to shoot Lennie. She does nothing wrong and without noticing Lennie kills her; just how he killed the mouse and the puppy killed the puppy. Curley’s wife’s death is a tragedy and symbolizes Lennie’s untroubled life coming to an end. Even though Lennie is not a bad person after the death of Curley’s wife, we can no longer think of him as an innocent child-like person. George and Lennie’s life was about survival, but centred on the innocent dream of the rabbits.

Although she may not intend to follow through with the threat, while doing so, she is forcing their attention on her. As Candy discovers Curley’s wife lying dead on the hay, he exclaims, “You done it, di’nt you? I s’pose you’re glad. Ever’body knowed you’d mess things up. You wasn’t no good.

She is portrayed as a beautiful and promiscuous women and throughout the book, she is treated like an animal by the men on the ranch. She is described in the book as a pretty women that the men are fascinated by. Infact, Steinbeck does not even give her a real name, but rather is referred to as an object of her husband’s possession. Curley’s wife is a character that completely embodies the typical role women are thought to hold. Bossypants versus Of Mice and Men shows the difference between male and female authors, as they portray women differently in each text.

In the story, when Curley’s wife confronts the three men, Lennie gets upset, saying that he wishes George was here. Candy, trying to calm Lennie, responds by saying “Don’t you worry none, I jus’ heard the guys comin’ in. George’ll be in the bunkhouse right now, I bet.” This calms lennie down, showing Candy’s power over him. Curley’s wife is shown to have the most power because of her ability to frame the three men and get away with it.

Matt McQueen Mrs. Lutrell English 11 5 February 2018 Curley’s Wife In the novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck creates a story about main characters George and Lennie that takes place during the Great Depression. All the characters in the story have different disadvantages, including Curley’s wife, the only women.

She was only written with negative character traits which made it so characters or readers were never able to sympathize with her. Next, no character ever had a turning point where they saw Curley’s wife as more than exactly that, Curley’s wife. And finally, he never gave her a name. There was a great imbalance between sexism and making the readers question the sexism. If Steinbeck had chosen to give the woman some justice the message against sexism would have been stronger.

Candy didn’t care about anything Curley’s wife had to say about his dream of the ranch. So it was a huge mistake for Curley’s wife to try to crush Candy’s dream. Now she lost any chance of Candy being her companion.

In the midst of things after Curley’s wife had died Candy had stayed behind and scolded at her “You done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad. Ever’body knowed you’d mess things up. You wasn’t no good. You ain’t no good now, you lousy tart”(95)

World of Sexism Due to the Great Depression, women’s rights took a back seat to employment and poverty. It was believed that women shouldn’t work but stay at home, clean, cook, and raise their children. The prejudice against women in the society was great back in the 1930s for they were degraded and underestimated. All the rights they had gained in the 1920s were neglected and the women were once again maltreated. In Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the victim of sexism is Curley’s wife who is so insignifact that even a name was not provided for her.

The fact that Curley’s wife is never called by a name but always by Curley’s wife means that at the time people didn’t care much about women's, there was sexism towards women. John Steinbeck never gave her a name in the story, to show us that she was treated like she was worthless and unimportant. Furthermore, Crook in the novel is a black worker,

Of Mice and Men is a novella describing a story filled with men except for one, Curley’s wife who lives on a ranch dominated by men. Curley’s wife is a portrayal of all women during the 1930s and the struggles they had to face. She suffers from oppression because she is blamed for distracting the men from doing their work merely because of the way she looks and she is compared to an object. “Curley’s wife” is barely a name for a woman and Steinbeck uses this title for her to dehumanize her and show that she is Curley’s object. She is a female archetype of a temptress representing a sexist view of women.

Sexist ideas are presented in the novel. The ranch is filled with men, and there’s one single woman amongst them, Curley’s wife and ‘it ain’t no place for a girl’. Curley’s wife is depicted as a ‘tart’, giving men ‘the eye’. Even though she’s marry to Curley the readers can infer that she is lonely due to not have a ‘nice fella’ as a husband. Steinbeck displays how unimportant women were in the 1930s by not even giving Curley’s wife a name.

In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrayed a political statement by looking at mental and physical disabilities through different characters such as Curley's Wife, Crooks, and Lennie. Curley's wife is used to represent how women were treated during the 1930’s and almost treated with a disability. Women were portrayed as the help and they were supposed to stay home and work while the strong brave men went out and got money to support the family. By Steinbeck not giving Curley's wife a name he is showing how she is connected to Curly with an Invisible rope.

The novellas Of Mice and Men and The Pearl are both often noted as social criticisms. The author, John Steinbeck addresses real-life issues that society is facing. Whether through direct statements and comments, or through a fictional characters’ situation, Steinbeck criticizes just some of the problems of society. He shows the way people are discriminated against, and why. He shows the issues society faces.