In such a case, and absent a last name for Curley, the men were left with "Curley's wife" as the obvious reference. Denying Curley's wife a name could be a way of emphasizing how she's universally mistrusted among the workers. She has not a kind word for anyone but the puppy she calls a "mutt" and is vicious toward Crooks, Candy and Lennie the "weak ones" in her words.
And she had not the least sympathy for her newlywed husband after he was severely injured. She mocked him for it and flirted with Lennie in the same breath. Ironically, an effect of not giving her a proper name is that it draws reader attention to her.
Many characters in the book are referred to by description. Curley is "the boss's son. Besides, what would be the point of emphasizing her as Curley's property? It doesn't. Women's rights are very important to modern readers, but in the Depression era people were much more concerned about jobs and feeding themselves.
People are trying to overlay today's urban values onto an agrarian culture more than half a century old. If Steinbeck was making a feminist point by withholding her name, he'd have mentioned that at least once, either in an interview or in his correspondence, neither of which has been brought to light. It would have been uncharacteristic of Steinbeck, if he were taking a feminist position, not to step up and take credit for it. From the very beginning he has shown in his works no shyness in confronting sensitive social issues, e.
If he meant something by it he would have made it abundantly clear. If women's rights were an issue at the time, at least one journalist or critic would have raised it. None did that I have found, nor did Steinbeck's biographers. It was the Depression, and people were too worried about survivial to worry about women's rights. The book came out in The stage version came out later that year, and the film in ' With all that coverage, nobody mentioned the topic of women's rights in connection with Of Mice and Men.
Even today there's no mention in Wikipedia of the subject in conjunction with the novel. If Steinbeck omitted her name to portray Curley's wife as a subject of sexism, he'd have used the technique elsewhere as well.
A tool is a tool; he would have used it more than once. But nowhere, in this or any of his novels or short stories that I have read, is the omission of a character's name used to establish victimhood, of sexism or any other prejudice. It would be a cheap trick at any rate, beneath the dignity of a writer of Steinbeck's stature. Just because there's a gathering of men doesn't mean that sexism is ground into the wood grain of every piece of furniture. Let's put the feminist ideology back on the shelf and open a bottle of clear-headed literary thinking.
Olivia Jul 29, AM 8 votes. I believe that she was given no name to emphasis the fact of her being Curley's property. I think it was a work of genius on Steinbeck's part.
Curley's wife hated the idea of being property, of belonging to someone, but she did. It was a twist of sad irony that made Curley's wife all the more interesting. View 2 comments. Write a comment Abby Oct 29, PM 5 votes. I think Curly's wife didn't have a name because her opinion wasn't important to the ranch. She was a nobody therefore Steinbeck treated her like a nobody.
Most people interpreted out of Steinbeck's book that curly's wife was nothing more then the daily ranch tramp, but there isn't any evidence, that's just a biased assumption made by the readers. What we do see is that Curly was a jealous husband. In grade school my teacher asked the class if we though Curly's wife deserve any respect in the ranch, most students said no that she was a bad wife.
But No one ever judge Curly as a husband. Curly was a far worse husband. Curly's wife didn't have the option whenever or not she wanted to be with Curly.
In the ranch she was left to be on her own, she couldn't make friends with anyone there because they were all men, and curly would go donkey on her. For example, Slims character accepted Curly's wife as a woman at the ranch, he never messed with her, but he didn't called her any names, and he did small talk with her whenever she was present.
But Curly as unusual showed jealousy. So the actual question is, who was the actual victim. Curly who had a tramp of a wife? Lindsey Oct 24, AM 2 votes. Chris Sep 04, PM 0 votes. Don't know if this has any bearing on this discussion but in the bible Lot's wife is never named, but she is turned into a pillar of salt.
Trick question would be what is the name of Lot's wife, because it is never mentioned. Curley's Wife was called just that because it showed that she was Curley's property and that women held no respect from anyone. Men disregarded their opinion on any matters past what dresses they wanted to order.
Her lack of name also shows how she was treated as property. The apostrophe s is commonly used to designate ownership of something or, in this case, someone.
Michael Mar 22, PM 0 votes. I think it's pretty clear from the article that sexism wasn't the focus of why Steinbeck opted to omit her name. For those not convinced, here's some slightly more objective evidence: if Steinbeck wanted to address sexism, wouldn't he have used all of his female characters to indicate this? Aunt Clara, Lennie's aunt, is named. If Steinbeck wanted to address sexism, wouldn't it have been imperative not to name Clara as well?
Perhaps, some more evidence: Curley's wife isn't portrayed as property in any way other than by the fact that she is not named which is arguable at best. Sure, there are indications of negligence and perhaps abuse, but she certainly does not act as property when she is on the ranch.
For example, she flirts with some of the men, sometimes even in front of Curley, something that is clearly out of character for "property".
Sarah May 23, PM 0 votes. You sound like a smart guy. You probably are I still have a opinion and it's a bit different. That's the cool thing about literature, people interpret it differently. Interestingly, Steinbeck did weigh in on the issue of why Curly's wife had no given name: Elaine Steinbeck, the writer's widow, recalls: "I asked John once, 'Why didn't you name Curley's wife?
She's not a person, she's a symbol. She has no function, except to be a foil -- and a danger to Lennie. It was. Second, that quote is nothing if not brimming with sexist overtones: A symbol, not a person. She simply pursued what she felt she deserved: male attention. Her need to fill this desire for attention became so intense that it ultimately caused tragedy. She was an instrument used to undermine the position of women in society.
Steinbeck purposefully left out her name in order to enhance his writing, and address issues during the time period in which he lived. This material is available only on Freebooksummary. We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. Sorry, but only registered users have full access.
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