Of Mice and Men Woman Analysis
Of Mice and WO-men In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses his life experiences to depict the lifestyle of people on a ranch in the Salinas River Valley. Through his travels, he captured the prejudices, social systems, and bonds involved with ranchers lives. The themes and topics he elaborates on are not just in ranch life, as they are found in people’s lives all over the world. Throughout the novel, most of the males view females as objects (especially sexual objects), believe in a patriarchal system, and stereotype females. These are just a few of the many topics Steinbeck touched upon. There are many examples of men that stereotyping the literary work. The main woman on the ranch is Curley’s wife, as the narrator describes her, “She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up.” (pg. 31) Curley’s wife is described as a good-looking female who is nothing but trouble. One example of this is when George says "She’s gonna make a mess. They’s gonna be a bad mess about her. She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger. That Curley got his work cut out for him. Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like her." (pg. 51). This quote shows that George thinks Curley’s wife is out to get the ranch hands in trouble because if Curley saw any of the ranch hands with his wife, there would have been a big fight and the person would be fired (during the time period jobs were scarce). It also shows that George believes that the ranch lifestyle is not fit for women. This is stereotypical because the ranch hands think that Curley’s wife is not a good person, she is just out to get them. They don’t know that she is lonely and unhappy with Curley and is just trying to make herself feel better by talking to the other ranch hands. Another example of stereotyping against women is when Whit told George “Well, stick around an’ keep your eyes open. You’ll see plenty. She ain’t concealin’ nothing I never seen nobody like her.