Examples Of Curley's Wife Oppression

Oppression and Curley’s Wife Who is Curley’s Wife? She is described as a “flirt”, is this who she really is? No, she is a person being abused not only by her husband, but also by the society she was born into. Steinbeck uses Curley’s Wife to illumine a legacy of sexism against females that has be within society since the beginning, and has only begun to go away in the most recent century. Though the text we see many examples of the sexism within society the Steinbeck wished to shed light onto. During the period of time in which the book takes place society viewed men and women very different, to the benefit of males. Women were viewed as second class citizens to men. Their primary role in life was to find a man to marry then barre him children. …show more content…
For on that day ninety-six years ago the 19th amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote. This is what began the decline of sexism in American society's. While sexism in American society overt sexism for the most part is gone, it still thrives with other societies. For example, vary traditionalist Muslim communities. In fact, many Abrahamic religions have holy text that contains some sort of sexism toward women. The Quran preaches, "and the men are a degree above them [women]". The Bible also states, “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” Form these holy texts, which were important factors in shaping societies, we can begin to understand the origins of sexism against women in societies. Some would argue that the majority of people following these religions in the modern day have abandoned these practices, to which I would half agree with. While many Christian sects in modern days have discarded this belief, the same cannot be said for some Muslims. An example of sexism with a society based on the teachings of Islam would be Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia it is illegal for a woman to go out in public without a male guardian. This law is similar to how the men …show more content…
Within the text Steinbeck deals with the topic of domestic abuse and how it is a byproduct of sexist views. Curley’s wife talks about how she is abused by her husband who doesn’t let her speak to anyone on the farm except for him, “If you go right now, we won’t tell Curley you were here.” (81 Steinbeck). In this quote Curley’s wife is talking with Candy, Crooks, and Lennie when they notice that the other men will be arriving back from town soon. The men trying to get rid of by telling her to go home so Curley doesn’t notice she was out talking to them. Now this is important because it shows that she is afraid of Curley and what he is going to do to her if she doesn’t submit to his will. We can find that Islam calls for something very similar in their holy texts, “Abu Dawood (2141) - "Iyas bin ‘Abd Allah bin Abi Dhubab reported the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) as saying: Do not beat Allah’s handmaidens, but when ‘Umar came to the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) and said: Women have become emboldened towards their husbands, he (the Prophet) gave permission to beat them." At first, Muhammad forbade men from beating their wives, but he rescinded this once it was reported that women were becoming emboldened toward their husbands. Beatings in a Muslim marriage are sometimes necessary to keep women in their place.” This quote just adds proof to the notion that the physical abuse of women to oppress

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