'Of Mice and Men' Revision: Sexism (student notes)

Sexism

In the period of the 1930s in America there were lots of forms of discrimination: one of them was sexism. Women were not seen as equal to men: they had fewer rights than men, were paid less and most of them were only allowed to take care of domestic chores. In that period of time, women started realising how submitted they were to men, so they began having ideas on how they could improve their lives and gain more independence. They had their own American Dream.

Curley’s wife perfectly represents the “average woman” in America in the 1930s. She would like to depend less on her husband, she has a fantasy of becoming a renowned actress and she feels secluded and miserable. She has to live in a male dominate society (“ranch ain’t no place for a girl”) and has to face the fact that she will never have all of the freedom she is hoping for. Her life is the exact opposite of this “dream”.

Curley’s wife is considered to be useless, but as a character, she has a great importance: in fact, without her characters some events in the novel would have not taken place. Examples of there are the crushing of Curley’s hand, her death and Lennie’s death.

          •        Curley’s wife is also lonely on this ranch - another isolated character because she's the only female– she also
has no name because she is of low status

          •        Curley's wife is a victim of sexism - only woman on dance; women were discriminated again at this time of the Great Depression

          •        ‘you think I don’t like to speak to someone every once and a while’ – shows Curley’s Wife is lonely.

          •        The shared dream gives them confidence and hope and unites them so that they stand up for each other against the girl

          •        she doesn't mean to be annoying ; just very lonely + doesn't get attention from Curley so tries to get out and make friends but they all take her good intentions and misunderstand them because they could lose their jobs.