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Laurie Camburn
Cuevas 2
English 10 AP Prep
20 April 2014
Since the dawn of time, every day life has been catered to the needs and wants of the
white male. During the Great Depression minorities and women were looked down on and
dehumanized, with their opinions never under consideration. In the novella Of Mice and Men,
John Steinbeck utilizes three characters, Curley's wife, Crooks, and Lennie, to reflect on society's
flawed views of women, African Americans, and the mentally disabled.
Throughout the entire novella, Steinbeck only introduces three female characters,
Lennie's Aunt Clara, Lulu the dog, and Curley's nameless wife. Curley's wife remains nameless,
which Steinbeck purposefully does to mirror the male superiority complex of the time. When
George instructs Lennie to stay away from Curley's wife at the beginning, he refers to her as
more of an object, than a person. "'Listen to me, you crazy bastard,' he said fiercely. 'Don't you
even take a look at that bitch. I don't care what she says and what she does. I seen 'em poison
before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her. You leave her be'" (Steinbeck 32). At
first glance, it appears as if George is simply trying to protect Lennie. However, in this dialogue
he quickly judges Curley's wife and immediately assumes that she is a bad person, only on the
grounds that she is a pretty woman who wishes to cure her loneliness. When George says, "...I
seen 'em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her," he generalizes all
women, calling them poison, and using the words, "piece of jailbait," objectifying her and all
other women. Steinbeck purposefully uses her to hold up a mirror to society, in hopes of pointing
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out its flaws, in hopes of society taking strides to correct them. During nearly every scene in
which Curley's wife is in, some reference towards her beauty is made. By constantly pointing out
her beauty, the author brings attention to the mistreatment and quick judgement of beautiful
women. At the very beginning when she is introduced the author describes her in detail. "She had
full rounded lips and wide spaced eyes heavily made up. Her fingernails were red... She wore a
cotton house dress and red mules, on the in-steps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich
feathers" (Steinbeck 31). Curley's wife is constantly associated with red, the color of love and
lust. This immediately makes her seem a bit promiscuous to the reader causing dislike towards
her, but she did not do anything wrong to cause most of the men on the farm to hate her. Lennie
kills her, yet he is still perceived as good, but once she flirts a little bit, she's suddenly evil. The
red ostrich feathers on her shoes tell a different story about her personality. Ostriches are
flightless birds, unable to reach the ultimate freedom of flight, much like Curley's wife. She is
trapped on a farm where no one will give her the time of day, and all because she is pretty. At the
end of the novella, when Lennie accidentally kills her she is described as ..."sweet and
young" (Steinbeck 93), rather than annoying and promiscuous, suggesting that death is the only
freedom for her. Steinbeck uses her life and death to convey a message, if death is the only
freedom a woman can have, then society's attitude towards them needs to change.
Crooks the stable buck is another character who others constantly look down upon, but
not because of his gender, but because of his race. In chapter four, Crooks' living quarters and
personality is described in detail by Steinbeck. "And he [Crooks] had books too; a tattered
dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905...A pair of large gold-rimmed
spectacles hung from a nail on the wall above his head" (Steinbeck 67). The presence of books
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and glasses represent the intellectual side of Crooks that most characters overlook. The fact that
he lives in the stable is very significant in further dehumanizing him. Crooks is so low on the
farm that he sleeps with the animals, with a pile of manure in his room. Steinbeck once again
uses a character to illustrate the broken aspects of society. During the Great Depression, when
the novella takes place, racism is still thriving and the stereotypical African American is seen as
uneducated and inferior. Steinbeck uses Crooks to break that stereotype and also reinforce the
idea that everyone's opinion is valuable. When Curley's wife comes into Crook's room she
begins to fire threats at him. "'Well you keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on
a tree so easy it ain't even funny'" (Steinbeck 81). When she threatens Crooks with a lynching, it
purposefully pops out to the reader to trigger a feeling of fear. This helps the reader relate to the
character and sympathize with him. Steinbeck invokes these emotions to give the reader a harsh
wake up call. He wants these emotions to inspire the reader to make a change. At the end of
chapter four when George returns from town, he yells at Candy for telling Crooks about their
dream home. In his defense, Candy replies, "Didn't tell nobody but Crooks" (Steinbeck 83). In
this statement, Steinbeck deliberately dehumanizes Crooks, calling him "nobody", which when
sounded out separates into two words, no body. This then implies that he is 'no body' and not
valued as a human being. Once again, Steinbeck holds up a mirror to society, this time in the
hopes of making the reader guilty, in order to make a change to how African Americans are
treated.
The final character Steinbeck uses to reflect on the faults of society, is Lennie. The
author uses Lennie to point out the way the mentally disabled are mistreated. Throughout the
whole story, George behaves as if he is ashamed of Lennie because he is not the brightest person
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on the farm. In the second chapter when George and Lennie meet the boss, George lies about
Lennie's intellectual disabilities and blames it on a horse kick to the head. "'He got kicked in the
head by a hears when he was a kid. He's awright. Just ain't bright. But he can do anything you
tell him'" (Steinbeck 22). This quote implies that George is ashamed of Lennie because of his
disability. A third time, Steinbeck holds a mirror to society, reflecting on the constant shunning of
the mentally disabled. In chapter three, George tells Slim about how he used to play jokes on
Lennie when they were younger because he was,"too dumb to take care of 'imself" (Steinbeck
40). Then, George lists examples of him manipulating Lennie for his own entertainment, "I used
to have a hell of a lot of fun with 'im. Used to play jokes on 'im.....Made me seem God damn
smart alongside him" (Steinbeck 40). At first it may seem as though George represents the whole
of society that treats the mentally disabled wrong. However, George does not represent that,
because he states at the end of the dialogue that he stopped using Lennie for fun after he almost
drowned. By writing this, Steinbeck points out that Lennie realized how he was treating George
was wrong, but he changed, and began treating him with a bit of respect. George says he used
Lennie to make himself seem smart, by writing that, Steinbeck points out that many people use
the mentally disabled for entertainment or to make themselves look good. Writing in George
treating Lennie with more respect is Steinbeck's way of telling the reader, and the people of the
time, to treat the mentally disabled equally and with respect.
John Steinbeck utilizes many literary tools such as foreshadowing and multiple instances
of symbolism. However, one of the most prominent tools he utilizes are the three characters,
Curley's wife, Crooks, and Lennie to reflect the skewed societal views of his time in the hopes
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that his audience would change their treatment towards women, African Americans, and the
mentally disabled.