John introduced us to a character called Curley’s wife, she plays a complex and misfit character as she got so many different sides to her, as sometimes the reader feels sympathetic and unsympathetic about her. John Steinbeck's novel of Mice and Men is an example of how the reader's perception of a character can change without the character actually changing.
Steinbeck uses many different techniques to present Curley’s wife such as colour imagery, appearance, metaphors and similes in the early stages of the novel. The effect of these techniques is that the reader creates a mental image of Curley’s wife even before she even enters the novel.
This perception is further emphasized by Curley's Wife's first appearance in the novel. Steinbeck uses light symbolically to show that she can be imposing when he writes, "The rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off."
Steinbeck portrays her in a horrible manner; he shows her as unintelligent and unimportant figures. Curley's wife is a prime example of how Steinbeck presents women; she is the most prominent woman in the book, so there are more citations about her. Primarily, she isn't even given a name; she is just referred to as "Curley's wife" and this shows that Steinbeck doesn't really think that women are important, so they don't deserve a name. Her dreams were shattered by marriage and her relatively young life cut short by her desire for human contact. Steinbeck has created a character for us to feel sympathetic towards.
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The presentation of Curley's wife is an interesting topic and her place as the only woman the reader meets in the novella puts her in a unique position. This essay makes some good points about the character and the way the reader may feel about her; however it lacks structure and there is no real direction to the piece. A careful plan should be made before writing to ensure that the essay has a clear focus and develops from point to point. I would also liked to have seen analysis of the scene in the barn between Lennie and Curley's wife as the reader's views of her may change at this point. 3 Stars