Of Mice and Men Theme of Women and Femininity

Of Mice and Men is set in a male environment where there are three types of women: the imagined nice girl for settling down, the prostitutes for a drink and a trick, and Curley’s wife, who is their daily representation of what to expect from the other sex. Women are a kind of absent symbol, only there to highlight the men’s failings: the men of the ranch can’t settle down, so they go to whorehouses. As the "girl next door" type is only a fantasy, the men basically reduce the women around them to sex. As George states, at least with prostitutes, "you pay for what you get." While Curley’s wife is a sexual object, she can’t actually provide any sex (because she’s taken) – all she can really offer is trouble.

1. Is Curley’s wife viewed as an aberration among women, or is she pretty standard as far as the guys are concerned?
2. Do any of the characters have a positive attitude towards any woman in the story? What about Aunt Clara?
3. What do we make of the fact that the only positive (and alive) female character we really get word of is Suzy who runs the whorehouse?
4. Is there a place for women in ranch life? Is ranch life supposed to be the wildness before the stability that comes with settling down and "having a girl"?

Curley’s wife is a caricature of the problems suffered by women in small agricultural communities during the Depression. Though she’s an awful woman, she does suffer from real affliction and prejudice.