Steinbeck generally represents women in the novel as troublemakers who bring ruin on men and drive them mad. Curley’s wife, who walks round the ranch like a temptress, seems to be a prime example of this destructive tendency. She’s a pretty, lonely girl who dreams of becoming a movie star. In the beginning of the story when Curley’s wife enters the bunkhouse looking for her husband, she is described as being dressed like a prostitute, and using body language that is persuasive in front of the men page no.:32 'She had full, rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. Her voice had a brittle, nasal quality.' She is the “tramp,” “tart,” and “bitch” that threatens to destroy male happiness. When she confronts Lennie, Crook’s and Candy in the stable, she admits to felling dissatisfaction about her life. Also when she admits to Lennie her dream of becoming a movie star, her true feelings inside escape and her character becomes a lot more interesting and more human like compared to when she was portrayed as the tart in fancy red shoes. In her greatest moment of vulnerability, Curley’s wife seeks out even greater weaknesses in others, preying on Lennie’s mental handicap, Candy’s deteriorating age, and the color of Crook’s skin in order to protect herself from against harm.
Crooks who takes his name from his crooked back looks after the horses (is the 'stable buck') and unfortunately for him he is the only black worker on the ranch. He is a proud and lonely man who has to live apart from the other men. His back is twisted after a kick from a horse. He is in consent pain because of this. Because he lives in complete segregation from the rest he spends a lot of his time reading books and magazines. During Christmas times he gets picked on and used for entertainment by the other men on the ranch. On page 70 a background of Crook’s live is explained. For the reader there is realization about the barriers between white and black people at the time. Like most characters in the novel he admits he is extremely lonely. When Lennie visits him in his room, his reaction reveals this fact. It’s the first time Crook’s speaks to another guy. At first he turns Lennie away, making the point that if blacks aren’t allowed in white men’s houses, then white men’s aren’t allowed in his, but his desire for company ultimately wins and he invites Lennie to sit with him. Like Curley’s wife, Crooks is a disempowered character, who turns his vulnerability into a weapon to attack those who are even weaker. Crook’s in turn tells Lennie what has happened to him in the past. He exerts his power because he is normally the one who is powerless. He revels to Lennie the agony he is going through due to the walls that have been built around him on page 77. 'I tell ya a guy gets too lonely, an' he gets sick'. Crook’s exhibits the effects of loneliness can have on a person. Perhaps all he wants is a felling of being wanted and a sense of belonging. Crook’s cannot help himself but ask if there is any space for him to come along and hoe in the garden after Lennie explains the future dream a few of them have.
Crook’s and Curly’s wife, seem to be the characters suffering the most in the novel. They both are allowed to expose their inner feeling in the novel, which no other characters get the chance to do except for the inner feelings of both Lennie’s and George’s dream. Crook’s mood is mainly obtained through the unaccompanied life he lives, being the only black worker on the ranch, and is therefore one of the characters I have chosen as a main victim in the novel. Curley’s wife on the other hand is ultimately the single character that is murdered and is the only women on the ranch. Being the only women on the ranch is the reason for many of her character faults. She dresses and acts the way she does simple to get attention from the men on the ranch. Once she finally gets this attention finally from Lennie, she become much more of a likeable character. However inevitable what happens is she stops the dream from happening.