Of Mice And Men Curley's Wife Victim Essay

John Steinbeck paints an overly oppressed portrait of America in the 1930’s. People were losing their jobs, meaning no income, money. It was a horrible time. It was also a horrible time to be a woman. What did it mean to be a woman in the 1930’s? How were they treated? Well, imagine a world where you are not defined by who you are, but what you are. After reading Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, it is proven that Curley’s wife is a victim in the novella based on her gender in the time setting of the novel, and her tragic backstory. She is a victim who is conceived as a villain based on her conniving appearance and attitude. John Steinbeck opens a world where women are treated like porcelain dolls, they are pretty little accessories only to be possessed inside of their “box”. In Curley’s wife’s case, two …show more content…
One being her mother, and one being her husband. For instance, at the age of fifteen, she went out to a place called the ‘Riverside Dance Palace’, there she met a man. She stated “He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural.” (Steinbeck: Pg.88) The man insinuated that she was a hoot, gorgeous, radiant. The man told her that after he gets back to Hollywood, he’ll send her a letter. By surprise, she had never got that letter. “I never got that letter… I always thought my ol’ lady stole it. Well, I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make something of myself, an’ where they stole your letters. I ast her is she stole it, too, an’ she says no.” (Steinbeck: Pg.88) It is understandable as to why Curley’s wife’s mother does not want her daughter to leave the nest. For instance, she is fifteen years of age, to young to leave home, but it does not explain as to why