Curleys Wife: Miss Dynamite or lonely victim? Essay

Throughout the book Steinbeck changes Curleys wife in different ways. He makes the reader feel abhorrence, sympathy, annoyance and love for Curleys wife. These different interpretations effect an unusual feel for this lineament. It is difficult to pinpoint one particular character that she is, as our opinions change regularly in the book. Since the beginning of the book Curleys wife has come crossways very confident, lustful and bold. She puts on a confident, troubling image to start but as the book progresses she belatedly reveals the lonely, apprehensive woman she really is.This image gets her in to a readiness of trouble and makes her come across bad. She isnt liked by the work-workers, and they dish out her very badly. At the start of the book George refers to her as Jesus, what a hiker and no piece of jail bait worse than her, these comments show how she comes across to the new characters and how little respect she has on the farm. The hierarchy on the farm is one of t he main problems through the book. It causes jealously, rivalry and trouble. Curleys wife spot on the farm is right at the bottom.I feel that throughout the book shes always thriving to reach some form of status or level within the community on the farm. I designate this because in the book when she asks what happened to Curleys hand and they dont tell her she calls them all names, Standin here talking to a bunch of bindle stiffs -a jigaboo an a dum-dum and a lousy ol sheep. This shows Curleys wife trying to stretch some sort of confidence by humiliating the other characters. By calling them names she feels almost superior and special, which is what she always wants.Women are tempered with very little respect and were never equal to men in this time. She belongs to Curley like an object or a possession. This is when her lonely victim place of her shines through because she is treated so badly we feel sympathy and unhappiness for her. A good example to show how women are trea ted in this day is by her name. In the book we always refer to her as Curleys wife and never know her actual name that shows how absolute and male-dominated the farm is towards women.At the point in the book where she dies our troubling/ charge-seeking hatred towards Curleys wife disappears as a sympathetic and sad expression takes its place. When she tries to break free of Lennie and squirms in his arms we feel a jerky sadness for her, although some people would say that she brought it on herself through her attention seeking ways, others would feel sympathetic. Steinbeck changes the image very well in this chapter, as we start to doubt our previous opinions on Curleys wife.In the chapter it says, And the intimacy and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all at rest(p) from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young. This extract reveals a all told different side to Curleys wife and makes us think such(prenominal) deeply about our attitude towards her throughout the book. It quotes all the reasons we used to detest Curleys wife in the past and compare it with her now, laying peacefully on the hay.Steinbeck changes Curleys wife character a lot, which makes it hard to termination whether she is Miss Dynamite or a lonely victim. I think that Steinbecks intentions were to make us feel sympathetic towards her but excessively to have a hidden hatred for her previous attention-seeking character. In conclusion, I think that this question of whether Curleys wife is Miss Dynamite or a lonely victim cannot be answered. Steinbeck changes the character too much throughout the book so that you can never pinpoint a true opinion.Only till the end do you realise a true sense of loneliness and sympathy, but while she was alive she was an innervation/ troubling character, which will always linger in our minds when we try to image her image. Jemma Davis Show preview only The above preview is unformatted te xt This scholar written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE John Steinbeck section.