Gender

Question 1

Against curley’s wife

Answer 1

• she is first introduced through her reputation
  -‘Well, I think Curley married…a tart’
• Casual sexism, never being addressed by her name, as if she is an object.
• ‘Tart’ is a derogatory noun. Candy and others on ranch feel like they can comment on her like an object.
• reflects how normalised sexism was in 1930s and how it. Had no repercussions
• A modern reader might be more nuanced in their approach to meeting her for the first time, feel sympathy for her.

Question 2

Isolating Curley’s wife from them

Answer 2

• She’s the only woman on the ranch
• All men talk bad about her behind her back. Lennie and George both being Male are immediately accepted into this discussion
• “Well, ain’t she a looloo?”
• ‘I bet she even gives the stable buck the eye’
• Show how normalised and accept misogyny in society was as neither George or Lennie stand up for her
• She’s been on the ranch for years and is isolated from everyone. George and Lennie have just arrived but are immediately accepted by the others. reflect the social hierarchy of the ranch

Question 3

Working class woman can’t make anything of herself in 1920 society

Answer 3

‘ he says he was gonna put me in the movies, he says I was a natural’

• The establishment of dramatic irony emphasises the tragedy of Curley’s wife’s life.
• Her dream was never materialised. ‘He says I was a natural’ -noun.
• He was only complimenting her to get her to do what he wanted.
• In reality it was never going to happen, reflecting the inevitable tragedy of a working class woman trying to make something of herself. Reader feels sympathy for how she was groomed. Golden age of Hollywood when this was a common thing.
• Now she’s left isolated, confined and unhappy on the ranch. With the sickening dramatic irony that her dream was never going to come true. Her happiness and hope for the future, essentially an insidious lie from a perverted movie director