How far do you blame Curley’s wife for what happens? Essay

There are lots of different pro’s and cons for this statement. Therefore I have started to take each character, Lennie and Curley’s wife separately and then create a conclusion from the evidence. Curley’s wife seems to be a weak character in the novel, but however this is just the way she seems, and not the way she really is. This is because there is also a powerful side to her. It’s similar to a split personality. The main ways in which Curley’s wife is portrayed to be weak is that Steinbeck purposely gives her no name, therefore she has no status. Also, Curley’s wife is portrayed as a powerful person. This is shown when men are frightened are frightened of her. This is due to all of the workers on the ranch seeing her as `jailbait`. Also Curley’s wife likes to impose herself upon people, for example Lennie and Crooks. This is because she sees them as weak, and from that she can hopefully get friendship and comfort, which is what she really wants. However, because of this she can also be seen as a troublemaker or flirtatious, which makes the men on the ranch, avoid her. The first side that Curley’s wife shows, which to relates to â€Å"what happens†, is where she shows her sneakiness. This is shown below: â€Å"Curley’s wife came around the end of the last stall. She came very quietly, so that Lennie didn’t see her.† (Pg 84-85, lines 33-1) After Curley’s wife had sneaked up on Lennie, she persisted in talking to Lennie even after he said not to, and she repeatedly did so until he gave in. The reason that I think that Curley’s wife did this was that she saw Lennie as an easy target, due to his child-like mental state. Also, the reason for Curley’s wife wanting so desperately wanting to talk to someone, was that she was lonely and never had the opportunity to have a conversation with anyone. Therefore she knew that she would be able to talk to Lennie due to him not fully understanding everything. This is shown in the quote below: She said, â€Å"What you got there, sonny boy?† Lennie glared at her. â€Å"George says I ain’t to have nothing to do with you – talk to you or nothing.† (Pg 85, lines 8-10) This quote above also shows the difference in power between Curley’s wife and Lennie. It is the part of the quote where Curley’s wife says â€Å"sonny boy†. This shows the power and dominance that Curley’s wife possess’ over Lennie. This also comes through in order to get Lennie to talk to her. Then, after the above quote, Curley’s wife still repeatedly continues to pursue her harassing of Lennie, whilst acting in a sympathetic way. She continues to do so, until Lennie gives in. This is shown below: â€Å"Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.† (Pg 85, lines 24-25) â€Å"Lennie said, â€Å"Well, I ain’t supposed to talk to you or nothing.† â€Å"I get lonely† she said.† (Pg 85, lines 26-27) This then results in Lennie talking to Curley’s wife about what had happened to the puppy, even though it was against his will, as he was still reluctant about going against the wishes of George. This is shown below: â€Å"He was so little, said Lennie. I was jus’ playin with him†¦an’ he made like he’s gonna bite me†¦an’ I made like I was gonna smack him†¦an’,,,an’ I done it. An’ then he was dead.† (Pg86, lines 7-10) Here is Lennie talking to Curley’s wife, about what had happened to the puppy, but he shows concerns over what George, would, think of them, and also most probably about the rabbits. The conversation then becomes closer, and Curley’s wife starts to flirt, with Lennie, this confuses Lennie, as is easily done. Curley’s wife gets Lennie to touch her hair, and he very much enjoys this, due to his fondness of feeling â€Å"nice† things. As a result of this, Lennie starts to stroke her hair harder and harder. This is at the same time as Curley’s wife encouraging him to feel it more. Then, as a typical child would goes over the top. But she continues to encourage him, not knowing how hard he would react. This is shown below: â€Å"Some people got kinda coarse hair, she said complacently. Take Curley. His hair is jus’ like wire. But mine is soft and fine. ‘Course I brush it a lot’. That makes it fine. Here – feel right here. She took Lennie’s hand and placed it on her head. Feel right aroun’ there an’ see how soft it is.† (Pg 89, lines 18-27) This then leads to frantic shouting from Curley’s wife shouting for him to get off her hair. Lennie becomes frightened and as he can’t handle the situation, like an adult would he holds on tight, for dear life. Then due to Curley’s wife’s frantic shouting and wriggling to get him off, Lennie becomes muddle up and confused. That is when Lennie becomes angry and kills her by breaking her neck. Lennie, I don’t think would have purposely tried to kill her, he just held on too tight, and wanted her to stop the shouting, yet he couldn’t cope with the situation in hand. This is shown below: â€Å"And she continued to struggle, and her eyes were wild with terror. He shook her then, and he was angry with her. `Don’t you go yellin’,` he said, and he shook her; her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.† (Pg 90, lines 14-18) Now, I think that this could be partly Curley’s wife’s fault, as she knew that Curley doesn’t like big/tall men, and therefore she knew that he would do anything to `get one up` on one, so I think that she would have known Curley would have gone for him, for dead. However, I also think that Curley’s wife didn’t expect for anything to happen, as it did. Also, at the end, when George shoots Lennie, I don’t think that she would have thought that George would have shot him, for any particular reason. As a conclusion, I would put a lot of the blame of Lennie’s death upon Curley’s wife. This is mainly because Curley’s wife was adamant that she would have a conversation with Lennie, even though it wasn’t what he wanted, as he told her to leave him alone several times, yet she did no such thing. Also Curley’s wife was then flirtatious with Lennie, which would have given him a lot of mixed thoughts. I wouldn’t put the whole blame upon Curley’s wife because she didn’t know how Lennie would react to the situation, and she was purely looking for friendship. This is because she felt alone.