John Steinbeck 's 1937 novel, Of Mice and Men, challenges the idea of the necessity of a companion to travel through life with. In the characters he creates, he shows the instability of the lives of the migrant workers at the time. Set during the Great Depression, the financial circumstances caused many men to move from one ranch to another looking for work. They often had to move around without warning, not knowing where they would find their next job. This made it difficult to build families and close relationships. However, unlike the rest, Steinbeck allows two of his characters to build a relationship in which they were able to dream and plan for the future together. George and Lennie were the "lucky ones," who had one another to look out
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She is often characterized to be flirtatious and occasionally desperate, thought of as a “tart” or “tramp”. In fact, all the women in the book are either prostitutes or dead maternal figures, hinting at a misogynistic environment. In the chapter she opens up to Lennie, the reader gets to see how much of a complex character she is, and how often she is ignored/dismissed partially because of her gender. She tells lennie about how she feels ashamed with her life and how she initially had a dream to be a movie star. This helps the reader understand how even though her character may not be liked, she is still a human being with goals, and dreams to achieve in life. In her conversation with Lennie she talks of how she doesn’t like curley but still found a reason to marry him to get the affection she needs. Her relationship with her mother isn’t the greatest, which means that she doesn’t even know what a proper relationship should be like, hence why she settled for anything. She settled for Curley where most of their relationship is spent looking for each other. The reader is able to make inferences about her relationship with her mother since there is no sign of trust when she accuses her of trying to sabotage her. ON page 88, Curley’s wife states, “I always thought my ol lady stole it..”. The lack of trust and instability in relationships leads her character into becoming bitter and mean. The only way she feels empowered is by bringing someone down like Crooks. In the novel, she admits, “I get lonely...You can talk to people but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley.” This shows how trapped she feels and lonely she gets since the only person she can talk to is someone she doesn’t
She is often characterized to be flirtatious and occasionally desperate, thought of as a “tart” or “tramp”. In fact, all the women in the book are either prostitutes or dead maternal figures, hinting at a misogynistic environment. In the chapter she opens up to Lennie, the reader gets to see how much of a complex character she is, and how often she is ignored/dismissed partially because of her gender. She tells lennie about how she feels ashamed with her life and how she initially had a dream to be a movie star. This helps the reader understand how even though her character may not be liked, she is still a human being with goals, and dreams to achieve in life. In her conversation with Lennie she talks of how she doesn’t like curley but still found a reason to marry him to get the affection she needs. Her relationship with her mother isn’t the greatest, which means that she doesn’t even know what a proper relationship should be like, hence why she settled for anything. She settled for Curley where most of their relationship is spent looking for each other. The reader is able to make inferences about her relationship with her mother since there is no sign of trust when she accuses her of trying to sabotage her. ON page 88, Curley’s wife states, “I always thought my ol lady stole it..”. The lack of trust and instability in relationships leads her character into becoming bitter and mean. The only way she feels empowered is by bringing someone down like Crooks. In the novel, she admits, “I get lonely...You can talk to people but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley.” This shows how trapped she feels and lonely she gets since the only person she can talk to is someone she doesn’t