Curleys Wife Essay: Curley's Wife

Everyone has dreams for the future, some may not be realistic, and some can be reached with ease. Curley’s Wife was a character in the book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. She was a young woman living in the times of the Great Depression, and she had a dream to be an actress. She was the only woman living on a ranch in California, complacently married to a man she did not love all because she was apprehensive that her dreams were slipping away from her. She had multiple opportunities to become an actress, but her mother stopped her because she thought she was too young. So Curley’s wife had to marry Curley, before contemplating the consequences, just to get away from her mother. Curley’s wife had the ability to achieve her dream at the …show more content…
Curley’s Wife is described as a young woman who had “full, rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages,”(31). While going into the cabins to find Curley, Curley’s wife meets George and Lennie, and everything about her sounds beautiful and graceful. During the great depression, everyone in hollywood was young and beautiful, and women had to have a lot of confidence. Some of the famous actresses at the time could’ve been described like she was. A lot of the women at the time were very reserved and modest, and would not leave the house, or in Curley’s Wife’s condition, left the house just to talk to men other than her husband. She wasn’t just described as beautiful though, other men knew that she was. After meeting Curley’s wife, Lennie argues with George,” “She’s purty.” Lennie said defensively. “Yeah, and she sure is hidin it,”(32). Lennie finds Curley’s wife to be quite attractive, and George sarcastically says that she is modest. During the great depression many women began to show more confidence, but were often shamed for it, just like Curley’s wife in the previous passage. But it is those women that have the courage to not wait around doing everything men tell them to that become famous and get what they want. Because of Curley’s Wife’s beauty, grace, and confidence, she …show more content…
She would’ve been amazing, with her good looks, grace, and confidence, but her mother wanted to hide that from the world. Curley’s wife had the ability to become famous at the time, but she let her mom get in the way. All that was stopping her was her mother, and after she got away from her mother, she let Curley drag her down. Her problem might’ve just been that she let other people walk all over her. She thought that she didn’t have enough power, she might’ve been confident, but she began to form internalized oppression toward women, and thought that she needed a man with her and thought she had to stay with Curley. This caused her to cower away from her dreams. If she hadn’t been so contemptuous with herself, and she hadn’t let her mom interfere, she definitely could’ve achieved her