John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Published in 1937, John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men is set in the 1930s and features the mistreatment of women by socially weak men. During the previous decade, women had gained rights and defied societal standards, but were yet to be considered equal to men. As the decade turned, this inequality remained, worsened by The Great Depression, which rendered many working class men jobless. Men were socialized as ‘breadwinners’, and when they lost their jobs, they were no longer the ‘head of the house’. They would compensate by asserting dominance over women through disrespectful, derogatory behavior. A feminist reading of this novella will reveal how Steinbeck, as a product of his time, unknowingly explores how socially weak men disrespect …show more content…
Steinbeck does this by never directly naming her, instead only referring to her as ‘Curley’s Wife’, reducing her to Curley’s property. The ownership effect is heightened because Curley only refers to her as ‘my wife’, like she is an object belonging to him. Additionally, his immediate reaction to her death is not grief, but anger, as if a valuable possession of his has been destroyed. Curley directs his anger at Lennie, saying he’ll ‘...“kill the big son-of-a-bitch”...’ by ‘...“[shooting] ‘im in the guts”...’(95). Curley is angry because he no longer has a beautiful trophy wife, and seeks revenge on Lennie for both his busted hand and for the fact that his wife has been murdered can no longer boost his self-esteem and social standing. Curley’s reaction shows he only values his wife as an object, an asset to his social status and does not respect her, or even her death.

Character contrast is employed by Steinbeck to explore how socially weak men disrespect women. Most of the main male characters in Of Mice and Men were socially disadvantaged and weak for their time. For example, Candy is old and only has one hand, Crooks is African-American, Lennie is handicapped. In contrast, Slim, the ‘...prince of the ranch…’ (34), is at the top of the hierarchy. He is also the only man who is not shown to be disrespectful of women. By contrasting the men, Steinbeck emphasizes how socially weak men disrespect …show more content…
Steinbeck unawarely explores a theme that is still relevant to and present in the 21st century, part of the reason why his novel remains timeless, even as it captures the essence of a time over 80 years
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