In the letter to Claire Luce, a broadway actor who has the part of Curley’s wife, Steinbeck addresses that to him, Curley’s wife is more than just a tramp. “ And automatically she became hardest when she was most frightened. She is a nice, kind girl and not a floozy. No man has ever considered her as anything except a girl to try to make.” (154) Steinbeck is saying that Curley’s wife is just very afraid and on-edge. When she is frightened she just freezes and doesn’t know what to do, so she does the only thing