Curly’s wife quotes and points

1. Represents loneliness and the lack of female companionship perhaps to show the segregation due to the predigests that women felt during the great depression

“I get awful lonely” (adverb “awful” – intensifies her emotional isolation), “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?” (rhetorical question – shows her desperation for human connection. furthermore, the rhetorical question highlights that she is use to not being answered) – context of women being isolated and confined to domestic roles in the 1930s.

2. Symbolises the limited roles and dreams available to women perhaps to criticise how Hollywood functioned during the great depression

“I coulda been in the movies” (conditional “coulda” – shows lost potential and crushed dreams), “He says he was gonna put me in pictures” (false promise – highlights how men exploited her hopes) – context of Hollywood

3. Shows how sexism reduces her to an object rather than a person perhaps to highlight how women were reduced to nothing but there looks in the 1930s emphasised with the brothels mentioned in the book

“She got the eye” (objectifying phrase – reduces her to a sexual presence rather than an individual), “A tart” (derogatory label – reflects the misogynistic attitudes of ranch workers) – context of patriarchal society and brothels and madrona whore complex.

4. Shows how a person with little power changes when they gain it perhaps to emphasis how little power women began with so any change in power is new to them

“I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny” (threatening language – she suddenly asserts racial power when given the chance), “You’re all scared of each other” (accusatory tone – she exposes the men’s fear, showing how confidence rises when she feels in control) – context of a patriarchal society where women had almost no power, so when Curley’s wife briefly gains social or racial leverage she abuses it.