I was assigned to do a character sketch essay on one of the characters in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. I don't think you need to be knowledgeable of the book to help. If you can make my sentence better, that is absolutely great. Also, the reason the word "Curley's wife" is mentioned a lot is because she is not given a name in the novel and is only referenced as "Curley's wife". I am not sure how to indent in this forum, but each paragraph is indented in my word document.
When George, the protagonist of the story, first sets eyes on Curley's wife, his initial impression of her is that he has "never seen no piece of jail-bait worse than her" (Steinbeck 32). In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Curley's wife is a beautiful woman who constantly shows off her beauty to the men on the ranch. She dresses inappropriately for a woman married to the boss's son. She also has full, rouged lips and wide spaced eyes. Her fingernails are red and her hair hangs in little rolled clusters, like sausages. Curley's wife always wanders around the ranch in search for someone to chat with. However, the ranch workers stay wary of her as they believe she will only give them trouble. Curley's wife is isolated, self absorbed, and a dreamer.
Ever since Curley's wife got married, she has felt isolated and depressed. She makes use of her beauty to get the ranch workers to talk to her. However, the other men dislike her because she is seen as trouble. If Curley were to find out that the ranch workers were speaking to his wife, he would fight them and then get them fired. She expresses her loneliness to Lennie when she says, "You can talk to people, but I can't talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How'd you like not to talk to anybody?" (Steinbeck 87). Curley's wife is frustrated because her husband denies her the freedom to go out and chat with the others on the ranch. This is because Curley treats her as more of a possession rather than a human being. Besides her husband's jealously, Curley's wife's social status also restricts her freedom. In the 1930's, during the Great Depression, the social status of women was quite low. Men did not take women seriously and the major role of women was to cook, clean, and raise the children. Curley's wife is a perfect example of how women were viewed in the early 20th century. To conclude, with women having such low social status during the Great Depression, Curley's jealously, and Curley's wife being portrayed as trouble, it becomes quite difficult for her to overcome her loneliness.
Steinbeck's initial portrayal of Curley's wife shows her to be a self absorbed woman who understands that her beauty is her power. George, Lennie, and Candy are one of the first to fall due to Curley's wife's actions. Candy says, "You an' me can get that little place, can't we, George? You an' me can go there an' live nice, can't we, George? Can't we?" (Steinbeck 94). Curley's wife is so egocentric that she did not heed Lennie's warnings to stay away. This eventually led to her death as well as the death of Lennie and the dream he shared with George and Candy. When she is in Crooks room, she reminds Crooks of his place in society and threatens to have him "strung upon a tree" (Steinbeck 81) if he doesn't show her the proper respect as the wife of the boss's son. In the end, Curley's wife self-centred characteristic brought destruction upon the ranch workers lives as well as her own.
On top of being isolated and selfish, Curley's wife is also a dreamer. In the barn, she tells Lennie that when she was a young girl, a man told her that "he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon's he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it" (Steinbeck 88). Unfortunately, she never receives a letter back from this stranger. When she tells Lennie about this opportunity, it shows a different side to her. She has a dream just like any other worker on the ranch. Her dream to become a movie star parallels George and Lennie's dream to own their own farm. This shows that these people want to get away from the migrant lifestyle and have a place in society. Unfortunately, by the end of the novel, neither character found fulfillment in his/her dream. To sum up, the denial of Curley's wife's dream tells people that there is no place for dreams in a world so cruel and difficult.
Curley's wife's self-absorbed personality foreshadows the fall of mans perfect dream. When she dies, all "the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face" (Steinbeck 92). Steinbeck shows his audience that even though Curley's wife is seen a nuisance in the beginning, she is still similar to the others because she, too, has a dream.
Not bad. In the first part of the essay, you might want to talk a bit more about how Curly's wife seems to have married him because of his social status, rather than for love. Thus, she is the architect of her own misery, because Curly is not a good person.
""You an' me can get that little place, can't we, George? You an' me can go there an' live nice, can't we, George? Can't we?" (Steinbeck 94)." This quote seems out of place, given the context.
"She has a dream just like any other worker on the ranch." This is good. I would have interpreted it as yet another sign of her shallowness, but this is also valid, and more sympathetic, too.
Try experimenting with putting some of these paragraphs in a different order. For example, that last paragraph could be placed anywhere within the essay. Maybe replace it or add to it for a more reflective conclusion.
That might help you to perfect it. It seems excellent right now, though. However, the "full, rouged lips part seems like a direct quote from some online source... make sure you don't let this seem to similar to anything else that has been written about it.
I found no errors, and your citations look good! I think this will do well!
I concur with both Kevin and fitz. I love the book "Of Mice and Men." The wife, in your essay, is spot on. I don't know if you're going to add more and post it here, but I would love to see it.
