Many books possess an evil character, a villain, however the villain normally helps to improve the story and create a depth to the plot. In the work Of Mice and Men, the author John Steinbeck uses the character Curley to show that violence is never the answer. When introduced to anyone new, Curley has to threaten them, because he needs to showcase his role of leadership in the group. However if he showed them kindness instead, people wouldn’t see him as an angry person. For example, Candy warns George to distance himself from Curley, because he has a nasty temper and loves beating up big guys because he is not big. Although these people have never personally attacked Curley, he can’t help but feel like they have more dominance over him because …show more content…
Instead of lending a friendly welcome he chooses to use violence, and he therefore makes himself into an evil person simply through the way he communicates with other people. Lastly, when Curley finds his wife in the barn talking to George, he gets very angry and threatens to kick him off the farm. Curley is very protective of his wife, Mbecause many times throughout the book, Curleyhe is searching for his wife her, proving that he is very protective of her. He wants to make sure the other guys stay away, butand she is defiant of his rules because she is upset that he keeps her locked away. However, when he confronts George about being in the barn with her, he gets really close to his face. Also, since he is the boss’ son, he starts to threaten him withmake threats about kicking him off the farm and beating him up in the barn. Although he was only talking with Curley 's wife, Curley is suspicious of her being around other people; t. Therefore, because of his need to be in charge he must be in charge, he has to constantly know her location and what she is doing at all times. If he chose to relax more with his wife’s whereabouts, then she wouldn’t constantly be sneaking off
He shows his malevolence through his unnecessary need to provoke a fight with Lennie, even though the big man did not directly attack him in any way, but after first seeing Lennie, Curley is described: “His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch. His glance was at once calculating and
As the only women on the ranch, this causes Curley's wife to be the minority to all of the men on the farm. This causes her to become very lonely and isolated since she is the only women. In the texts Curley's wife says, “‘I get lonely,’... ‘You can talk to people, but I can't talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad, ‘How’d you like not to talk to anybody?’”
Because Curley’s wife is closely connected to the boss, her engagements towards the men on the ranch will only push her further away from them. Also, when Curley’s wife appears, her loneliness pours out of her with resentment. She describes her isolation at the ranch by stating, “I get lonely...you can talk to people, but I can't talk to nobody but Curley” (87). This shows that shes just a lonely young and naive girl, who uses her sexuality to get noticed on the
She uses her power to dominate over Crooks, Lennie and Candy ‘left all the weak ones here’ this signifies that, similarly to Curley, she likes to stir trouble and mock people who are weaker than her to make herself feel better and boost her confidence, however this is showing the reader the opposite of what Curley’s wife wants us to think, it shows that internally she is damaged and lack confidence and happiness. In this chapter, Curley’s wife picks on all the characters, she firstly points out Candy’s old age and calls him a ‘lousy ol’ sheep’ showing her disrespecting character to the elderly, this could be because she doesn’t get any respect and so treats people like they treat her. Moreover, she uses her power to threaten Crooks, who is the only black character in the novella, ‘I could get you strung up on a tree’ this illustrates the verbal abuse black Americans had to endure in the 1930s society. Overall in this chapter, we see that Curley’s wife is self-obsessed and lives in her own word, she feeds on other people to make herself look better in her own
Curley, the boss’s son, is the antagonist of the novel. He continuously tries to pick fights with Lennie and George and pushes them around because he has more power than them, even though Lennie is physically bigger and considerably stronger than Curley, Curley has more influence due to his position. The theme throughout this novella is that the strongest will be in charge and has all the power, which is why Curley believes he is allowed to take advantage of the other men. While Curley pushes Lennie and George around, it makes the men want to leave the ranch and fulfill their goal of their dream farm even more. In particular, George feels inferior to Curley because he has so much power over him and the other men, “He ain’t no cuckoo. .
Curley is one of the characters that has the most power in the story. He always gets what he wants and he likes to pick fights with guys who are bigger than him just to show them he is tough. Curley’s power comes from the fact that his dad is the boss. He could get any of the guys who work on the ranch fired if he wanted to. The men do not respect him, they are just afraid of what he could do and they try to avoid him to stay out of trouble.
The definition of a sympathetic character is one whom the writer expects the reader to identify with and care about, though not necessarily admire. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife, a main character in the book is blatantly portrayed as an unsympathetic character. This is because they only see her through the men's eyes, who only see her as a tiresome object, owned by her husband. Steinbeck’s portrayal of Curley’s wife is unfair and misogynistic because he only displays her as unintelligent and promiscuous, never has a character have a turning point where they realize she’s more than an object, and he never reveals her true name. The first reason that Steinbeck's portrayal of Curley’s wife is unfair is that he never gives Curley any redeeming personality traits, he only depicts her as unintelligent and promiscuous.
Notwithstanding, he has had controversy with almost everyone on the ranch. He abused Lennie, a mentally disabled man, he publicly exposes his and his wife’s sexual lives, and he treats his wife as if she is his slave. Moreover, the actions Curley has done are corrupt, but they are not solely because he is an abominable person. An infrequent amount of readers will look at Curley’s actions and have sympathy for him, but Curley has reasons for his mistakes. Nevertheless, Curley is a disastrous man due to the way he grew up being an only child, he is astoundingly short, his father is a wealthy ranch owner, and he grew up in a racist and sexist community.
Curley’s wife also states, as she targets Crooks, “Well, you keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny” (81). Curley's wife feel she needs to prove her own authority as Curley’s wife by picking on social outcasts, because she knows she has no power over anyone else on the entire ranch and she is tired of feel empowered all the time. She uses her beauty to give her power over the men, and her position as a white person and the boss’ son’s wife to pick on a social outcast, such as a black person like
Finally, Steinbeck dehumanizes Curley by the negative criticism that always pursues her and her loss of identity when accompanying someone or something. This is why she is always commonly known as “Curley’s Wife”, proving that she is an unimportant and insignificant character in this book. Plus, everybody in the book says that Curley’s wife causes trouble for everyone; as George says, “She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger,” (Steinbeck, 49) and is constantly getting blame for all that goes wrong in Soledad; as Candy says, You God damn tramp. You done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad.
The characters in “Of Mice and Men” have memorable personalities that we all can relate to due to their set archetypes. John Steinbeck uses these common and generalized in order to have the readers relate more to his characters. This allows the reader to experience the story and feelings of the characters much better and lets the reader to connect to the character’s feelings, or force the reader to form opinions that aligns with those of the main protagonist(s). In “Of Mice of Men”, readers are initially introduced to Curley’s Wife with words such as “tart”, and having “the eye”. Which, even if readers do not know what that means, it may be inferred through diction that she is overly flirty, or a “tramp”.
Continuously she is being put down by the ranchers and is told consistently that her presence was unwanted on the ranch, even Curley, her husband, would act mentally abusive towards her. Day in and day out, it is assumed that Curley’s wife is being treated this way, and is putting up with this because she feels and/or knows that because she is a woman, she is inferior to them. Albeit her appearance no longer being near the ranchers, nor on the ranch, they will continue to maintain talking rudely about her, George eventually will start to poke fun at her when he only just met her, exclaiming: “‘Jesus, what a tramp,’ he said, ‘So that’s what Curley picks for a wife.’”.
(87) More specifically, the other men on the ranch refuse to talk to her because Curley’s position of power on the ranch portrays him as having the ability to have any man on the ranch lose their job. Furthermore, when Curley’s wife was conversing with Lennie in the barn and confided in him, she said: “Well, I ain’t
Curley’s wife was weakened by her state of isolation as the only female on the ranch. Due to this, she sought companionship with Lennie. Although Lennie was a mentally challenged individual, he was stronger with his status as a man who was also physically strong. Despite her efforts to escape Lennie’s grasp, the difference in power made Curley's wife unable to defend
Archetypes are a manifestation of how our minds envision the roles of characters, these characters come in the form of the hero, villain, temptress, damsel, monster, and mentor. In the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, we follow the story of two men who struggle to pull through to survive horrible times, on their journey they come across other characters that fulfill the roles of the archetypes. The archetype in discussion is the villain archetype which is the evildoer of a story usually a person who commits a crime against society or against a couple of people. One character in particular that fills the archetype of the villain is Curley, he has an aura of evil that resonates from his attitude and his actions, which triggers people