Curley's Wife

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  • Created by: HMosa08
  • Created on: 18-02-20 16:29
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  • Curley's Wife
    • Loneliness
      • "Heavily made up, her finger nails were red"
        • Lots of time to dress up emphasising that she is lonely
        • 'Red' connotes passion and danger. Steinbeck could be using this colour here to illustrate that she is dangerous and causes trouble
          • 'Red' is also the colour that infuriates bulls#, it is used to make bulls angry before a race. In the novella Lennie is described as a bull. Steinbeck uses this imagery to illustrate how Curley's Wife will end up getting Lennie in trouble and foreshadows the events that occur later on in the novel
        • She may be getting dressed up as it allows her to partly live in her dream
        • She may think that this is what men like and becoming seductive may be the only way to get their attention by looking appealing.
      • Only women in the play and in the ranch.
        • No support from other women
          • Craves companionship
      • "I ain't wanted in the bunkhouse and you ain't wanted in my room"
      • Married to a man she doesn't love and who doesn't love her
        • Craves companionship
      • "A guy goes nuts if he aint got nobody"
        • She walks in right after this delibrateluy so the idea of loneliness is still fresh in the readers mind when they see her. The reader becomes more sympathetic towards her as they realise she may be lonely as well
    • Dreams
      • "He says he was gonna put me in the movies"
        • Wasn't really going to. The guy was just using her.
      • Unattainable - reality living in the ranch lonely
      • She escaped from the control of her mother but ended up being controlled by her husband instead and escaping to a harsher and even lonelier life. This was what life was like for some women in the 1930s
        • The harsh and lonely environment caused her to become lonely and isolated causing her to obsess over her dream and as she cant fulfil it she turns angry and upset leading to nasty and attention seeking
      • The mens' dream was more modest compared to Curley's Wife as they want to be left alone but she doesn't want to be left alone
      • All she cares about is nice clothes and having her photo taken - this is a childish like dream making her seem innocent and young and we makes the audience feel sorry for her as she was so naive about the dream
    • Power
      • "Listen ******...I could get you strung on a tree so easy it ain't even funny"
        • She becomes hostile. Steinbeck does this to illustrate how such a hostile enviroment changes a person to become harsh and hostile themselves
        • She abuses her power
        • 'Listen' is an imperative used here to show that she expects him to obey her and thinks she is of greater importance than Crooks therefore having more power over him.
          • It's clear that this wasn't unusual
          • During the 1930s, black men were discriminated against because of their race.
      • She is Boss's sons wife

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