She also has a dream to be accepted as a woman and to be treated equally. Curley uses her as an object. No matter what Curley’s wife says to Curly, in the end she always listens to him. She says ‘I never get to talk to nobody’ and ‘I get awful lonely’; it is clearly shown that she wants a friend to talk to.
Curley’s wife gets extremely lonely. Steinbeck doesn’t give her a name, which makes her seem more isolated and lonely. Her appearance leads the men on the ranch to have nasty opinions of her, which again reflects on the pathetic elements of her character. She doesn’t realise that her appearance drives men away because they are scared of Curley. Candy says, “ I think that Curley’s married … a tart” and George says “what a tramp”.
Being the only female on the ranch with her appearance and flirty behaviour, she doesn’t fit in. She visits the bunkhouse a few times claiming that she is looking for Curley yet, she is obviously aiming to get attention. She starts talking playfully to the men “ I f he aint, I guess I better look someplace else, she said playfully.
Curley’s wife becomes more lonely and iscolated because the men on the ranch know that befriending her could be a dangerous risk since Curley is her husband. Not only is the basses son and could easily get someone fired, but he also likes fighting and could get into a fight.
Curley’s wife wonders into the barn where Lennie, Candy and Crooks were talking. Knowing where Curley is, she asks them – “ Any you boys seen Curley?” – which sounds as her usual routine – always trying to make the same old pathetic excuse. She complains to them saying how she is so lonely “ Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever once in a while?” Her rhetorical questions are suggesting to the reader that she has emotions just like everyone else. It is ironic that they call her trouble and warn Lennie but ultimately it is that is a danger to her. But the reader still feels sorry for Lennie because of his disability to understand.
It is sad that Curley’s wife doesn’t understand that people don’t get involved with her because of her behaviour and appearance. Her dreams seem to be unachievable and unrealistic making her lonelier and tragic.
Crooks has a dream to be treated equally. He is the only black person on the ranch so he doesn’t get any respect because in the 1930s a lot of people were racist, it was only ten years since slavery had been abolished. People used the term “nigger” about Crooks naturally; they don’t think that it is offensive to Crooks because they were socialized to treat black men as slaves.
Steinbeck makes it clear to the reader that Crooks isn’t treated equally by mentioning that Crooks cant go into the bunkhouse. Instead he has his own harvest room with unsuitable furniture to use, “Crooks’ bunk was a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung” it sounds more like something an animal would sleep on rather than a person which gives the impression that Crooks is seen as an animal rather than a person. When Lennie comes into Crooks’ room, Crooks becomes horrible to Lennie “ They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog” – It sounds like Crooks feels like he has a chance of being higher and more powerful than someone, explaining his horrible threats towards Lennie. This implies that Crooks has always felt intimidated and beneath everybody else. Crooks began asking Lennie questions “s’pose you didn’t have nobody.” And “a guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody” – the reader can clearly see that Crooks is talking about himself wishing not to be in that position. It can be clearly seen that Crooks is a hopeless character when he starts talking about men wanted the American dream – “every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it.” – this implies that Crooks has lost his faith in his dream.
Crooks is one of the most loneliest and isolated characters in this novel. Steinbeck made this character very defensive although he does want company. When Candy stands at Crooks’ door, Crooks says “ ‘Come on in. if ever’ body’s comin’ in, you might just as well.’ It was difficult for crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger.” – this shows that Crooks enjoys the company, but he just cant let go of the fact that he isn’t treated equally by many people, which is the cause of his defensiveness, - “ I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t wanted in my room.”
Crooks gets extremely lonely all by himself in his room all day as he isn’t aloud in the bunkhouse. The sad thing is, is that the men let Crooks go into the bunkhouse once during a Christmas night “ they let the nigger come in that night.” But Crooks ended up in a fight with one of the men – this shows that no matter how some of the men try to be nice to Crooks, they can never think of Crooks as an equal.
Steinbeck creates two similar characters to explore the same themes of this novel slightly differently to give the reader two perspectives of the themes. These two characters are Crooks and Curley’s wife.. Curley’s wife is a married woman and Crooks is a black man. This slight difference makes a big impact on the men on the ranch. They are both lonely and isolated; Curley’s wife hasn’t got any female friends and Crooks hasn’t got any black friends meaning that they don’t have any friends at all since most of the men on the ranch don’t want to get involved with them. Curley has control of his wife, and everyone has control of Crooks. Crooks and Curley’s wife also have unfulfilled dreams; they both want to be treated equally and Curley’s wife also has a dream of being a movie star.
Interestingly Steinbeck decided to put Crooks and Curley’s wife together in the middle of chapter 4, when Lennie and Candy are talking in Crooks’ room. Curley’s wife then came in unwontedly so Candy told her that she isn’t wanted. However she doesn’t listen to him so Crooks told her to get out. – This shows that Crooks felt like he had more power and equality than usual since Candy and Lennie were treating him equally at that time which is why he had enough courage to tell Curley’s wife to get out. Curley’s wife then starts threatening Crooks. This suggests that although Crooks and Curley’s wife are both treated unequally, Curley’s wife still has the control of Crooks meaning that Curley’s wife has a very racist opinion of Crooks. This also implies that Curley’s wife fells that she has a chance to take an advantage of Crooks since she’s always being taken advantage of. Steinbeck created Curley’s wife character to have a bitter, lonely and isolated life while creating Crooks’ character to be treated horribly, unequally and have a lonely and isolated life where he has to listen to everything anyone orders him. Steinbeck has used these characters to explore these themes openly making this novel very effective and powerful book to read.
