What contribution does Curley's wife make to the novel?

by ariab06 (student)

Brandon. Ariathas 10.D4

What contribution does Curley’s wife make to the novel?

In the novel Curley’s wife is the only female character and she is presented in many various ways. At first impression, she comes across as the seductive, troublemaker the ranchers see her as. However, as the story progresses, we learn that this is only one of many sides to a very lonely woman. The reader’s sympathy for this character also changes throughout the novel, as her secrets are revealed and the real Curley's Wife is found. Curley’s wife is also the only character in the novel without a name and this shows her lack of identity and the lack of power. Curley treats his wife as a possession and we never learn her name in the novel. Her namelessness also reinforces how insignificant she is on the ranch and how little she is respected by the others.

Candy first introduces Curley’s wife when he says that Curley is keeping his hand soft for her. Candy means that Curley’s hands are tied to sex and violence. He fights with one hand and keeps the other hand soft. She is described as pretty but Candy says that “she’s got the eye”, meaning that she is flirting with other people. Candy also says that she’s got the eye on Slim and Carlson. Candy also at the end says that Curley’s married…a tart. This means that she is a flirtatious woman who goes out with men. Her first appearance is in Chapter 2, she is described as “rouged lips, wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up, red fingernails, hair hung in rolled clusters, wearing a cotton housedress and shoes with red ostrich feathers.” The author, John Steinbeck, describes her appearance and this shows her personality that she is out of place, because everyone around her works, this also shows her character and she is attractive. Like many young girls who still have bright future, Curley’s wife still holds some small hope of a better life, claiming that she had the chance to become a movie star in Hollywood. This is shown when she was having a conversation with Lennie in the barn, she says ‘Coulda been in the movies and had nice clothes, coulda sat in them big hotels’. This shows that Curley’s wife has dreamt for many years seeing herself as a potential film-star. She was tricked by a man at saying that she was a natural and that he put her into the movies. He said that he would write back however she never received that letter and her naiveté shows in her belief that her mother has stolen a letter (from her ‘contact’ in Hollywood) which was obviously never written; her immaturity appears in her instant reaction of marrying the loathsome Curley. Curley’s wife’s appearance is really her only weapon because her attractiveness is of little use with such a jealous husband. Curley gets jealous when his wife is around other men from the ranch because he wants to be the only man who she likes.

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Curley wife seems to hate Curley already, just after two weeks of marriage because she is left alone most of the time, isolated and depressed. Curley’s wife is an outsider because she is the only woman, has no role on the ranch. She is always outside looking in; she also can’t make friends with anyone because of Curley. If she did make friends with anyone she would have got told off. Men from the ranch avoid her because they fear Curley might do something to them; they all think that she causes trouble. There is no evidence that she has caused trouble in the past. When the other ranch hands are aware of Curley’s wife and try to avoid her Slim however knows that she is trouble but he’s probably the only one who actually nice to her unlike the other men because Steinbeck has portrayed as Slim being friends with everyone in the book. This is noticeably shown when Curley’s wife was found dead in the barn he was the only man who dared to have physical contact and touch her to check if she was okay. She specifically flirts with Slim because he is the man with the most power in the bunkhouse. He's the leader, the one the other men look up to, and he demonstrates a kind of quiet leadership. When Curley's hand is crushed by Lennie, Slim even orders Curley not to tell. This shows that Curley is scraed of Slim. Curley’s wife is left behind with the ‘weak ones’ when the rest go to the whorehouse, they are all outsiders: Lennie, Crooks, Candy and her, they all have something in common they are all lonely and left behind on a Saturday night.

Crooks, Candy, George and Lennie were talking about the dream when Curley’s wife comes into the barn and interrupts them. Crooks is the only black man on the ranch, he works as stable worker and he is physically handicapped. Curley’s wife seeing him as a stable worker and black, this shows that Crooks has two disadvantages him being a stable worker meaning that Curley would beat him up and him being black meaning that he does not have power at the ranch. This is because she knows that Crooks doesn’t dare to do anything to her like the other men on the ranch. Crooks builds up his courage to stand up and asks Curley’s wife to leave she starts insulting Crooks by saying racist remarks to Crooks which offend him like ‘Keep your place nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree’ which reduces him to nothing. Crooks immediately is scared by her and cowers up against the wall. This clearly shows that Curley’s wife is racist towards people that are weaker than her, also it might be that both Crooks and Curley’s wife are both lonely and Curley’s wife who is frustrated because she overwhelmed by her loneliness so she tries to let it all out on Crooks. Crooks is also lonely tries to let out his anger by being mean to Lennie. Even though, she’s a woman who isn’t wanted here, she still has more power over an older and wiser man because he’s black and she’s the wife of the Boss’ son.

Lennie finds Curley’s wife attractive but George finds her as a trouble maker. This is shown when George says to Lennie “Jesus, what a tramp.” Therefore George warns Lennie to keep away from Curley’s wife because george considers her to be a trap. This is also shown after Curley’s wife had just met the men in the ranch. “I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her. You leave her be.” This foreshadows something might happen between Lennie and Curley’s wife. Lennie’s relationship with Curley’s wife is good, they meet each other in barn and exchange stories. Before that Curley’s wife realises that the others have warned Lennie not to talk to her, when he says “you’ll get us in a mess”. This shows that Lennie has been told about the danger of being with Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife also tells Lennie why she married Curley, “because she wanted to get away from home”, she didn’t receive the letter she’d been promised to get into Hollywood and Curley smiled at her at the Riverside Dance Palace. Lennie tells her about Weed, their American Dream and how he likes stroking soft animals. This shows they are both lonely when they start exchanging their life stories.

Curley’s wife invites him to stroke her hair that results into her death. Lennie’s dream is now truly over because she knows that Lennie is different to the other characters and she shouldn’t have let Lennie stroke her hair. Curley’s wife’s death is sad because she is only young, mistreated by Curley throughout their marriage and felt lonely at the ranch, with no one to talk to. Candy finds her and his reaction to her is that he calls her a ‘tramp’; this is because she has ruined their dream of buying a house and a lot of land. Then later he calls her a “poor *******” because of how Curley has treated her throughout their marriage. When the men find her dead Steinbeck describes her “and the meanness and the planning’s and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young.” This means that underneath all the flirtatious and provocative personality she also has an innocent and sweet side of her and also shows that she is only very young.

In conclusion Curley's wife is seen as an ambiguous character and in my opinion Curley’s wife’s contribution to the novel is that she is the most dangerous character because she destroys Lennie’s and George’s dream of living “off the fatta lan”. Her dream is also destroyed because she wanted to become a movie star. Curley’s wife also dresses in red; the symbolic meaning of the colour red in literature is danger.

Brandon. Ariathas 10.D4