Essay written by Bhumika, Abdulbari, Mohammed and Poonam.
Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife as a person who is maybe a shadow of darkness. Steinbeck’s uses of imagery when it say “rectangle of sunshine in the door way was cut off”, there Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife as a person who brings darkness. The phrase “sunshine cut off” creates an image in the readers mind as if Curley’s wife brings darkness or is more powerful. We as readers feel as if Curley’s wife is high in power after reading the first line. When “both men glanced up, Steinbeck is creating an image that could suggest that the men are looking at a powerful being God.
Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife as very powerful we knows this as she says “bye boys”, Steinbeck’s use of alliteration shows us that Curley’s wife sees the boys at the bottom of the hierarchy because of the use of the word “boys” Curley’s wife also indicates to us that she thinks that they are “childish” we understand this because “bye boys” is not something that you would hear a lot it shows us that ageism as the Ranch Boys of could be represented as “young”. Alternatively it could also present Curley’s wife as “flirtations” as she may say “bye boys” to get the boys attention.
Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife as low in status by Steinbeck’s methods of using adjectives, “her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages”. The adjective “little” shows how “little” power she was given on the ranch and made inferior amongst the superior me in the room. An alternate interpretation is she could be seen “little” in a physical way as the ranch was full of migrant workers who were quite big such as Lennie, here how she is described as “little” could suggest that men have to look down to her showing she is still inferior.
Steinbeck uses descriptive language in the presence of Curley’s wife, he doesn’t use simple words such as “dark red” to describe her, instead he says “fully rogues lips”. The word “rogues” suggests that Curley’s wife is a very mischievous but loving person as is very sexually active and likes to her body off to boys, but Slim actually respects her as he calls her “good-lookin’”. An alternate meaning to rogue is that Curley’s wife is a dishonest person and she may become a traitor, this fore-shadows the events of the future that could happen that leads to a crisis within the ranch.