How does Steinbeck create sympathy for Curley’s wife in these extracts ?

Curley’s wife is the only women on the ranch, she is not allowed to talk to anyone, she is lonely and
isolated. Curley’s wife wanders around all day in the ranch desperately looking for someone to talk
to. Curley’s wife often goes to people that she believes are weak because they are the only ones that
talk to her. She hasn’t got her own name as if she isn’t important, it makes the reader sympathetic
because we now know that she is called Curley’s wife like to show she belongs to Curley. Curley’s
wife isn’t mean, she is very young and innocent; childlike.

At the begging of the extract, Curley’s wife is angry. She is not only angry at Lennie but is angry at
everyone because she isn’t allowed to speak to anyone as if she was poisonous. “Her face grew
angry. What’s the matter with me she said. Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody? Whatta they think I
am, anyways? You’re a nice guy. I don’t know why I can’t talk to you. Lain’t doin’no harm to you.”
Lennie is very reluctant to speak to her at the beginning because he doesn’t want to get into any
trouble. As Curley’s wife keeps talking, Lennie doesn’t say anything about her presence. Curley’s wife
has led Lennie into him stroking her hair because at first, she was talking to him and it seemed like
she was just being friendly but then Lennie talked about how he liked “touching soft things” and she
continues by telling him that he could feel some silk and velvet. Curley’s wife then tells him her hair
is soft and Lennie starts stroking him, it is not Curley’s wife’s fault, she is unaware of the danger. She
is always in search for attention and someone to talk to, but because of Lennie’s uncontrollable
strength, if she seeks for attention he will listen but it could end badly. There is a lot of
foreshadowing that something bad will happen to Curley’s wife. The incident in Weed is one of the
biggest foreshadowing, he likes to pet soft things but if he hears panic in someone’s voice instead of
letting go he tightens his grip and doesn’t let go, this shows that he isn’t aware of his strength.
Candy’s dog gets killed, an innocent dog yet that causes things he can’t control like, his smell,
blindness that bother others, it is a sort of comparison with Lennie. When Curley fight’s Lennie and
George tells Lennie to hurt him instead of stopping after Curley is in pain he keeps going till he has
crushed Curley’s hand. Lennie kills his mouse and puppy and he doesn’t understand or know how to
deal with it.

We learn a lot about Curley’s wife, she had a dream that she would be in the movies. “Nother time I
met a guy, an’ he was in the pitchers. Went out to the Riverside Dance Palace with him. He says he
was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon’s he got back to Hollywood he was
gonna write to me about it.” She says that she never got the letter and blames it on her “old lady”.
Curley’s wife is naïf, the man never really wrote her a letter he just wanted to get whatever it was he
wanted or impress her, he lied to her and she misunderstood. She dreams about her life if she
would be in the movie’s, a more glamourous life. “Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes-
all them nice clothes like they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ spoke in the radio, an’ it
wouldn’ta cost me a cent because I was in the pitcher. An’ all them nice clothes like they wear.
Because this guy said I was a natural.” We also learn that Curley’s wife doesn’t like Curley nor does
she think he’s nice. “I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.” She married Curley as a rebound, out of
spite. “I ast her if she stole it, too, an’ she says no. So I married Curley. Met him out to the Riverside
Dance Palace that same night.” All of this creates sympathy for Curley’s wife because she isn’t living
the life she wants, she isn’t in a happy marriage and she is very lonely on the ranch, she can never
talk to anyone, she has to keep to herself.
“Curley’s wife lay with a half-covering of yellow hay. And the meanness and the planning’s and the
discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple,
and her face was sweet and young. Now her rouged cheeks and her reddened lips made her seem
alive and sleeping very lightly. The curls, tiny like sausages, were spread on the hay behind her head,
and her lips were parted.” Here Steinbeck makes us feel sorry for her because of how he describes
her, in such an innocent and pure way, by using words like: very lightly, sweet and young, very pretty
and simple. Curley’s wife’s description when she is dead is very airy and subtle. She is the complete
opposite of the description at the start where she acts like an attention seeker and over the top with
all the makeup. “She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her finger-nails
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.” Then Steinbeck
describes the atmosphere in the barn. “As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and
remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much,
much more than a moment.” Time freezes, everything is still for Curley’s wife so young, naïf and
innocent. This is like a sign of respect towards her, because not even her husband will care. Curley’s
wife didn’t deserve to die this way or even just or die.

I feel a lot of sympathy for Curley’s wife because of her loneliness and treatment. She is waisted at
the ranch doing nothing, she is smart yet her life is lonely, she is married to a man she doesn’t like.
Curley’s wife isn’t living the life she wanted or dreamed of, she doesn’t even have her own name.
Curley’s wife is so innocent, young and naïf that it creates sympathy for her. The way she dies is sad,
she didn’t deserve it nor is it a good way to die either.