Of Mice and Men Woman Analysis
Of Mice and WOW-men In John Steinbeck novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses his life experiences to depict the lifestyle of people on a ranch in the Salinas River Valley. Through his travels, he captured the prejudices, social systems, and bonds involved with ranchers lives. The themes and topics he elaborates on are not Just in ranch life, as they are found in people’s lives all over the world. Throughout the novel, most of the males view females as objects (especially sexual objects), believe in a patriarchal system, and stereotype females.
These are Just a few of the many topics Steinbeck touched upon. There are many examples of men that stereotyping the literary work. The main woman on the ranch is Curlers wife, as the narrator describes her, “She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. ” (peg. 31) Curlers wife is described as a good-looking female who is nothing but trouble.
One example of this is when George says “She’s goanna make a mess. These goanna be a bad mess about her. She’s a Jail bait all set on the trigger. That Curler got his work cut out for him. Ranch with a bunch of guys on it anti no place for a girl, specially like her. peg.
51). This quote shows that George thinks Curlers wife is out to get the ranch hands in trouble because if Curler saw any of the ranch hands with his wife, there would have been a big fight and the person would be fired (during the time period Jobs were scarce). It also shows that George believes that the ranch lifestyle is not fit for women. This is stereotypical because the ranch hands think that Curlers wife is not a good person, she is Just out to get them. They don’t know that she is lonely and unhappy with Curler and is Just trying to make herself feel better by talking to the there ranch hands.
Another example of stereotyping against women is when Whit told George “Well, stick around an’ keep your eyes open. You’ll see plenty. She anti concealing’ nothing I never seen nobody like her. She got the eye going’ all the time on everybody.
” (peg. 51) Whit warned George to be careful of her because she is a huge flirt and no one knows why. This is stereotyping because Whit thinks that girls like Curlers wife are out to get all the ranchers in trouble, when in reality she is Just unhappy with her marriage with Curler, and flirting with the hands is how she deals tit her unhappiness.
The last example of stereotyping females is when Leonie and George are talking about Curlers wife and George says, anemia, and she’s sure hiding’ it [her prettiness]. Curler got his work ahead of him. Bet she’d clear out for twenty bucks.
” (peg. 32) This quote shows that George thinks that Curlers wife is stereotypically like other pretty woman, who are “in love” a person for their money. This also shows the distrust that the ranch hands have towards beautiful women. The distrust can come from the fact that the women they have sex with at the where souses only care about their money.
Steinbeck uses the stereotyping of Curlers wife too show how the ranch hands feel about promiscuous girls (that they are nothing but trouble), but in reality, she is misjudged because she is not emotionally stable, lonely, and confused, and she thinks being promiscuous is a way to cope with everything. Have the power and prestige in society.
Carlson proves the ranch is patriarchal when he says, “Won’t you tell her [Curlers wife] to stay the hell home where she belongs? ” (peg. 62).
Carlson says this because in a patriarchal system, women stay mom and take care of the house and family, and he believes that if she stayed in the house she wouldn’t cause as much trouble (and if she doesn’t she will get in trouble). The ranch hands would believe this because in the sass, most women stayed at home and cared for the family and house, unless their family was impoverished and needed the females of the house to work (Great Depression). Moreover, the males of the ranch view females as objects (especially sexual objects), instead of equal humans.
George proves this when he says muff give me a good where house every time…
A guy can go in an’ get drunk and get everything auto is system all at once, an’ no messes. ” This statement shows that George Just wants to go to the where house to get drunk and have sex with the girls there.
He says that he would use the girls for sex Just to get everything “auto his system”. Steinbeck puts this in the novel to show that the ranchers (other than Curler) can’t have a woman with the profession they work in, so they Just have sex at the where house and use the girls there as objects so they can get all their “daily stress” out of their system.
Another example of this is when Whit says: “Yeah…
We don’t never go there. Clara test three bucks a crack and thirty-five cents a shot, and she don’t crack no Jokes. But Guys place is clean and she got nice chairs. ” (peg. 52 and 53) This shows that Whit doesn’t care about any of the girls because both Scalar’s and Guys place have whore’s, but Guy’s has nicer chairs and that’s why he would go there instead of Scalar’s.
Steinbeck puts this in the book to show that the ranch hands don’t care who they have sex with, since sex is sex.
This proves that the males use the females as sexual objects instead of equal partners in a relationship. All in all, throughout John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men, males view women as sexual objects instead of people, because of the loneliness of the rancher life, and human sexual needs (that’s why they pay to have sex with whore’s from the where house).
The males in the novel also stereotype females as being promiscuous and flirts, when they are really Just confused and emotionally unstable. Finally, males also believe in a patriarchal system in which the males should have control over their woman and the woman should stay in the house. Steinbeck includes all of these things in the book to show the complexity of the social injustices in the life of ranch hands located in the Salinas Valley during the sass.
