Steinbeck uses the light and the dark to denote major themes in the novella such as hope and dreams. As Curley’s wife is first introduced a “rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off”. The character literally and figuratively blocks out the light and …show more content…
Linking to this nobody on the ranch called her by her own name this shows vast lack of respect. Her identify had been taken away, and she has no right to stand up as a person with rights and an opinion. Steinbeck makes the reader feel sympathy for her as she is neglected and over observed. The apostrophe in “Curley’s wife” indicates that she belongs to him: she is his possession just like his horse and his shotgun. During the 1930s in USA, women were seen as second class-citizens as said and only seen appropriate for reproduction and looking after the men. Maybe Steinbeck has also left her nameless so we can associate her with all of Lennie’s “soft things”. Everything that Lennie fancy is soft in which then goes into a disaster. This suggests that the fact she is nameless is a possibility of her …show more content…
She suggests she is a vulnerable female against Crooks and is very aggressive towards him and warms him to “keep your trap shut then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.” This is a definite threat to Crooks. Considering to this shows that the social attitudes at the time were extremely raciest and she chooses him because he is the weakest on the ranch and least able to defend himself. She was going to accuse him of sexual assault backing this up she also knew that his black skin would make the situation worse. “strung up on a tree” is a reference to lynching where black man would be hung up on a tree until death and then left there as a “warning” to other men. This gives her some prestige and influence because she is the only women, but her husband makes her an outcast on the farm. As well as this nobody will want to converse with her because they fear