was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in. She had full,
rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails
were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages.
She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which
were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers. “I’m lookin’ for
Curley,” she said. Her voice had a nasal, brittle quality.
minute ago, but he went.”
door frame so that her body was thrown forward. “You’re the new fellas
that just come, ain’t ya?”
seem to be looking at Lennie she bridled a little. She looked at her
fingernails. “Sometimes Curley’s in here,” she explained.
playfully.
pass the word you was looking for him.”
person for lookin’,” she said. There were footsteps behind her,
going by. She turned her head. “Hi, Slim,” she said.
bunkhouse, and she hurried away.
Curley’s wife enters the male dominated space that is the bunk room and immediately casts the two friends into darkness. She literally and metaphorically takes away their light presumably we assume, a foreshadowing of her role in the text. She will destroy their intimacy and even their lives. However she is also destroyed herself and she is notably only ‘a girl’ too. I do like the simplicity of the description and the momentum of the detail. We accumulate a picture of this nameless woman as if we are there with George and Lenny reviewing the appearance of this anomalous figure. For Curley’s wife is an anomaly. She doesn’t have a function on this ranch by reason of her sex and her effect on others seems disruptive if not cataclysmic.
The heavily sexualised appearance of Curley’s wife is not of course only dependent upon the consuming and objectifying gaze of the male characters. It is also due to her attempt to emulate those film stars she aspires to become. This falsity therefore is emphasised through the very ‘constructed’ and even theatrical way she is made up. The reader recognises her identity is based on this debased copy cat performance of a film star and I have always wondered about the ‘nasal brittle’ quality of her voice. Why is this detail included by Steinbeck within the narrative, and what are its implications? Guy Clare pointed out to me from his situation as a vet, that her voice is probably nasal as it is unhealthy AND would preclude her becoming a film star as it is harsh and off putting. This seems very plausible and adds pathos to the description as it negates her dream and the novel is of course, all about dreams and their unrealities.
This is very well written and is very useful. Please can you analyse the quote ‘Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in’. in more detail because I am struggling to analyse the quote and comment and interpret what this quote signals to the reader. Please can you possible email the answer to me if possible. m.qadoos@hotmail.co.uk
Thank you very much.
Kind regards.
Mariya
I am pleased the commentary was useful. The particular quote draws attention to the destructive effect of Curley’s Wife on the two spectators, for ‘sunshine’ is a literal and metaphorical representation of their friendship. The sunlight provides life and fertility. GROWTH> many songs explore the absence of sunshine and with its its negative associations? The entrance is very theatrical and staged. But the irony is she doesn’t realize she is predicting her own death too. NEMESIS?
It symbolically foreshadows the ending of the text. for all three characters, then remember that Slim takes George back up towards more light and new road at the end. The world of Lennie and George will be irrevocably damaged by this interloper into their (already) fragile world. significantly too however, the ‘girl’ will be destroyed by her association with these men. And the fact that Curley’s wife is but a ‘girl’ reminds us that she is far less knowing than she appears. She is play acting and the later reference to her bridling at Lennie’s blatant gaze shows us how little she really understands her own sexuality and that of others. Games get out of hand perhaps or her loneliness and lack of maturity make her a terrible catalyst for destruction.
Hope this helps!