Gender Stereotypes In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Women

If you were asked to consider a stereotype, what is the first one that comes to mind. Let me guess, is it a race stereotype? Or a gender stereotype? John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, contains characters that portray race and gender stereotypes. They both share a common objective, which is to aid in the delivery of the theme. Although authors are frequently encouraged to contain unique characterizations, Steinbeck uses stereotyped characters in his advantage to deliver his message of isolation within humanity. Curley's wife is one of the characters who contain a gender stereotype. She is constantly being judged and thrown into a negative characterization. These stereotypes follow her until the day she dies. Even then no one …show more content…
She has only been addressed by “Curley’s wife.” She’s thrown into the stereotype that women are irrelevant property that do not deserve a name. She lives alone in isolation, she barely has her own identity. “‘I get lonely,’ she said. ‘You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley’” (87). Some may argue that the book is written through the perspective of the farmers, therefore they may have not wanted to get to a “first name basis” since they believed she was trouble. “George says you’ll get us in a mess” (88). Yet Steinbeck could have easily expressed Curley’s wife with a name but the men could have continued to address her as Curley’s wife. She feels inevitably alone, engulfed in isolation, and a large cause to that is she has no purpose on the farm and isn’t shown any attention. All she wants is someone to call her by her name and be kind to her for once since her husband “ain’t a nice fella” …show more content…
Yet no one attempts to apprehend her or her story before jumping to assumptions. “Jesus, what a tramp,’ he said…’Don’t you even take a look at that bitch...I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her’” (32). When Curley’s wife wanders into the quarters of the men---only attempting to start conversations---they take it the wrong way and view it as her trying to slut around. Some may argue that by the way she dresses and the amount of makeup she wears, makes her a whore and means she’s “asking for it.” “She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up...she wore a cotton house dress and red mules,on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers” (31). That’s the heart of all stereotypes, making assumptions without truly knowing. Those who argue that statement, are only looking at half of the painting. The other half clearly explains she’s stuck in an unhappy marriage and is only flirtatious to get attention to fulfil her emptiness bestowed inside her. She dresses up because she enjoys looking good. Her dream was to become famous and since her plans fell thru, the only thing keeping her from losing her mind is dressing up from day to day to at least pretend she’s content. That should not define a women, and should not justify the harsh treatment and words she receives by the