OMAM - Curley's Wife focus

Explore the ways one or two minor characters are presented in Of Mice and Men Characters are presented in two main ways in Of Mice and Men: through Steinbeck’s narrative and through other character’s comments and conversations. This allows the reader to view characters in different ways: through Steinbeck’s narrative, the reader can form more of their own opinion, whereas we are given a more biased perspective when detail is offered through other character’s conversations. It is notable that the majority of Curley’s Wife’s presentation is through other character’s comments and Crooks’ presentation comes from a combination of narrative and his own comments in chapter 4. Curley’s Wife is first presented to the reader through Candy’s comments. He tells George, after speking negatively about Curley, “Wait til you see Curley’s wife”, he then goes on to tell us she is “Purty…but” and “she’s got the eye”, summing up moments later that “I think Curley married… a tart”. The effect of this is that the reader immediately things negatively of her, before she has even entered the novella, especially as we are told of Curley’s violent nature and George warns Lennie to stay away from him, reminding him where he can hide if things, inevitably, go bad. The reader immediately associates Curley and his wife as negative characters. Steinbeck’s narrator outlines Curley’s Wife in chapter 2, moments after Candy’s biased and negative comments, through her physical description when we are told: “Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in. she had full rouged lips…heavily made up. Her fingernails were red”. The fact she is presented as such, following on from Candy’s words, creates a negative impression on the reader – she has cut off the light and seems to have come uninvited. Added to this is her appearance in red, a colour associated with sex and promiscuity in women. It reinforces the idea that she is a tart and the reader automatically has a negative view of her. The reader’s opinion only changes when Steinbeck deliberately tries to create sympathy for her in Chapter 5 before she is killed, by letting us hear her life story and how badly she has been treated, to ensure the reader is satisfied that Lennie must be punished and his death is acceptable. That presentation of Curley’s Wife changes because we hear her speak, honestly, in her own words. The language is childlike and simplistic and we realise how sad and lonely her life is. She believes that she could have been a movie star because someone told her that and she lived her life in that belief – it shows her lack of education. We see how sad and lonely she is when she says “Well, I ain’t told this to nobody before. Maybe I oughtt’n to. I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella”. The effect on the reader is to realise that maybe she is misunderstood. Perhaps her attention seeking, viewed so negatively by Candy and the others, is actually a way to stem her loneliness. A similar trait is seen when Crooks speaks at length to Lennie in his room in Chapter 4. It is important that Steinbeck changes her presentation at this point, to allow the plot change to occur – the reader needs to be satisfied that Lennie must be punished to allow the ending to work – we then view George as doing the right thing, putting Lennie out of his misery, rather than killing him.