Curley´s wife has a different type of dream. Instead of something to call her own, she wants fame, fortune and admiration. She tells the three “bindle stiffs” about her offers of fame. She is unhappy with her husband, and his constant stories of who he’s going beat up next:
“Sure I gotta husband´. You all saw him. Swell guy, ain´t he?”
When she is talking to Lennie, alone in the barn, she recounts her obviously well told stories of her offers of fame. She seems to have a deep regret that she didn’t take up either of the men on their offers:
“If I’d went, I wouldn’t be living´ like this, you bet.”
She also deeply believes in what she was told by the man who may have been only trying his luck with this woman, not knowing she would take his word as gospel:
“He says he was gonna put me in
The movies. Says I was a natural.”
Her monologue, broken by only a few words from Lennie, tells of her need for affection, and how she needs to be wanted. Curley´s wife does not seem at all likely to achieve her dreams. Even if she wasn´t murdered, she was stuck in a rut with Curley, a rut that would she would have gone round and round in until he left her for a new woman, or she finally built up the courage to leave him. Also, someone who is referred to throughout an entire story as someone’s possession does not make a likely major character. Their marriage did not seem like one that was destined to last until they died of natural causes. But Curley´s wife did die, and her death, it seemed, was a release
Crooks is a black man with a crooked back. He is the only black man on the ranch and is not allowed in the bunkroom because of his colour. This is typical of 1930’s America, as back then black people were thought of as inferior. Crooks knows that black people are thought of as such, as when Curley’s wife tells him that if he tells the boss to ban her from the barn she would get him hung, he simply replies eyes madam. Crooks spends his time alone reading and is a knowledgeable person, as he owns a copy of the California civil code for 1905He also plays horseshoes until dark, but is not allowed into the bunkhouse to play cards, as the others claim he stinks, but he tells Lennie you all stink to me. He is nasty to Lennie at first, as he thought Lennie shouldn’t be in his room, as he is banned from the bunkhouse. When he finds out Lennie is harmless however, he lets him stay for some company. He hasn’t really spoken to anyone for a long time, and is eager for Lennie’s Company. He shows this when he claims books aint no good. A guy needs somebody to be near him and æ a guy goes nits if he aint got nobody. He wants to join in with George, Lennie and Candy to get the place as he is discriminated against at the ranch.
Curley’s wife is possibly the loneliest of the characters, as she is the only woman on the ranch and the men are all afraid to talk to her. Steinbeck deliberately doesn’t give her a name, as it shows that there isn’t anyone on the ranch close enough to her to know it. This shows she must have a really lonely life. Curley’s wife only flirts with the workers because it is the only way she knows to get her attention. All the men on the ranch think that she has got the eye and that she is a tart, however, she is actually just an insecure, lonely woman, and this is shown when she tells Lennie I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely. And when she asks what’s the matter with me? And Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody? Life on the ranch must be very lonely for her, but I do not think she is very good at being verbally challenged, as she went mad in chapter four when Crooks told her to leave his room. The reason Curley’s wife wanted to speak to Lennie in chapter five is that she doesn’t have anyone to talk to. She tells Lennie this, saying æ you can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How you like not to talk to anybody? Curley´s wife has a different type of dream. Instead of something to call her own, she wants fame, fortune and admiration. She tells the three “bindle stiffs” about her offers of fame. She is unhappy with her husband, and his constant stories of who he’s going beat up next:
“Sure I gotta husband´. You all have seen him. Swell guy, ain´t he?”
When she is talking to Lennie, alone in the barn, she recounts her obviously well told stories of her offers of fame. She seems to have a deep regret that she didn’t take up either of the men on their offers:
“If I’d went, I wouldn’t be living´ like this, you bet.”
She also deeply believes in what she was told by the man who may have been only trying his luck with this woman, not knowing she would take his word as gospel:
“He says he was gonna put me in
The movies. Says I was a natural.”
Her monologue, broken by only a few words from Lennie, tells of her need for affection, and how she needs to be wanted. Curley´s wife does not seem at all likely to achieve her dreams. Even if she wasn’t murdered, she was stuck in a rut with Curley, a rut that would she would have gone round and round in until he left her for a new woman, or she finally built up the courage to leave him. Also, someone who is referred to throughout an entire story as someone’s possession does not make a likely major character. Their marriage did not seem like one that was destined to last until they died of natural causes. But Curley´s wife did die, and her death, it seemed, was a release.