Explore the way Steinbeck portrays Curley’s wife as someone we both sympathise with and dislike at times.

Steinbeck portrays Curley’s wife as one we both sympathise and dislike at times by showing both sides of her story to the reader, he illustrates Curley’s wife’s, point of view by revealing her past and why she is married to Curley. He then depicts the other side of her personality by exposing how she is around the ranch workers, and what they think of her. The author also illustrates the life of a typical women in 1930’s America and the little respect they were given. Steinbeck does not make the reader feel one strong emotion for her but various different emotions throughout the novel. Furthermore he constantly foreshadows a coming of an event she will play a major role in by reminding George and Lennie how similar she is to the girl in Weed, who Lennie was falsely accused of raping.

The first thing the reader notes when reading about Curley’s wife is the lack of importance she is being given by Steinbeck not mentioning her name, and by referring to her as a possession of Curley ,however this also reflects to 1930’s America, when women weren’t given any importance and were treated with a huge amount of disrespect. They didn’t have much power over the men and were considered ‘useless’. Henceforth Steinbeck may have not given her a name as women were not considered important enough and she may not have deserved a name in this era. This could make the reader feel sympathy for her as she not only is considered useless but a possession to a person she doesn’t love.
Then the reader may notice how she is dressed “full, rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up”. Nobody dressed up to come to the ranch, it was a dirty place in which people wore discarded old clothes. However Curley’s wife did the opposite and came in “heavily made up.Furthermore,”Rouge”