The Repression Of Women In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men is a novella by John Steinbeck that follows the story of two men, one of which is mentally handicapped, who are looking for work in the Great Depression era. These men, George and Lennie, arrive at a ranch where Lennie’s abnormally large physicality and stunted mental ability struggles to be accepted or go unnoticed by the other workers. Steinbeck introduces only one African American character and one female character, and uses a tone that can be interpreted as degrading and negative while narrating on and creating comparisons between these characters. He is not glorifying the segregation of race and gender, or the isolation of any kind of person, but rather creating an important focus on how these outcasts are shamed by society …show more content…
In the novel, the only representation of women is through the character of Curley’s wife, who is never given a name in the story. She is characterized as being extremely provocative, and therefore a nuisance to many of the men living on the ranch. All throughout the novel, there is seldom a kind description of her character and she is treated with little respect or completely ignored by the men. Steinbeck uses words like “tramp” to describe Curley’s wife in order to create an authentic dramatic effect and show how the men disregard her as lesser than them. The one character in the story who recognizes Curley’s wife as anything other than the one dimensional persona that is perceived by the other men, is Lennie. When Lennie and George are first introduced to Curley’s wife on the ranch, George immediately makes judgments about her that are influenced by and concur with the other men. Lennie is not affected by the other men 's opinions, and formulates his own first impressions on this woman. George says rashly, “Jesus, what a tramp...so that’s what Curley picks for a wife,” and Lennie responds defensively, “She’s purty,” (Steinbeck 32). Lennie is the only person that sees Curley’s wife as an equal, and Steinbeck makes sure to highlight this point. There …show more content…
Steinbeck uses many opposites to emphasize his points, especially in order to show that in some cases ignorance in the views of society is actually the contrary. Lennie cannot comprehend society’s ideas on what kind of person is socially ideal, and therefore has a pure, unbiased opinion on people like him who are misunderstood and unwanted. In this way, he has a simple, virtuous view on equality that should be widely accepted, but instead is advanced for his time. There is no place for someone like Lennie who ignores society’s narrow values and cannot assimilate into the ideals. Lennie and his brilliant ignorance’s find peace in a world without the true ignorance by society of basic rights, and therefore can only find his refuge in