Of Mice and Men. Curleys wife is characterized to portray the sexist attitude of the society towards women,

The Great Depression lasted from 1929-1941. The Great Depression led to 1000’s of people losing their jobs and having to live a life without a place to call home as they had to move to find money and food. Life was tough for large numbers of the American population. The Dust Bowl also took place which meant that people starved due to the constant failing harvests at that time. Workers needed to travel to find jobs and were forced to move west to find manual labor jobs. Curley’s wife in the novel is portrayed as a flirtatious, unfaithful, woman. Curley’s wife is seen to have an “evil sexuality”, as in she wants to get people in trouble by being seductive. Curley’s wife is alone without any companions all she wants is to have a conversation with people. She is subjected to the misery of being Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife desires to live a life happily as she wants to have a life partner who cares about her. She longs for attention, and displays her sexual attractiveness to obtain it

In Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife is isolated in her house where she is allowed to cook and clean and forced to live the rest of her life without any friends or relationships with which she could break free from her dreary lifestyle. She is presented as unnamed character, and her degraded status personifies the inferior role to which women were relegated to in the early-twentieth century American society. When she approaches other men so that she could just have a conversation with them, they turn their backs against her as they believe that she only cause problems. Curley puts his wife down without giving her any freedom. Curley’s wife feels oppressed and isolated. Curley’s wife is characterized to portray the sexist attitude of the society towards women, the stereotypical view of the society as women being the creators of problems of the society, and women’s lack of power.

The character Curley’s wife in the novel Of Mice and Men portrays the sexist attitudes towards women and their roles. During the entire course of the novel Curley’s wife remains an unnamed character, thus making a social statement on how women were degraded and considered insignificant during that period of time. The usual norms of women at that time were to be a housewife and take care of the kids. Carlson exemplifies the sexist attitudes of the society when he says: “Why’n’t you tell her to stay the hell home where she belongs?” to Curley (on p. 62). Steinbeck also uses the protagonist George to show how society thought about women, as George’s remarks on Curley’s wife demonstrate, “Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like her.” Women at that time were merely puppets on strings, you control them the you want to and if a string tears or starts creating problems you simply throw it away.