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Of Mice and Men (part B question)

This is a part B question and involves a passage. If anyone could tell me what mark I could possibly get I would be eternally grateful.

'IN THIS PASSAGE WHAT METHODS DOES STEINBECK USE TO PRESENT CURLEY'S WIFE, AND THE ATTITUDES TOWARDS HER?'

My answer:

One of the main themes in Of Mice and Men is prejudice. Steinbeck represents the 1930's American Society's racism, ageism and sexism in the novel through the characters. In this passage Steinbeck presents Curley's wife first interaction with George and Lennie. A method Steinbeck uses to present the characters attitudes to Curley's wife is the use of language. This helps demonstrate ignorance, and prejudice towards Curley's wife.

Of Mice and Men was written from a third person view and therefore is not bias, it also presents an accurate view of American society during the Depression. Steinbeck presents Curley's wife without a name throughout the novel, this makes her appear as Curley's possession, an object, not a person. Steinbeck first describes Curley's wife's appearance in a negative way. "Her hair hung in little clusters, liken sausages". By describing her hair like sausages presents her hair as ugly. Sausages are not particularly attractive foods. Instantly we see maltreatment towards Curley's wife from Steinbeck.
Steinbeck visited the ranches in California whilst he was at university, and therefore achieved an accurate view of how life was on the ranches at that time in America during the 1930's. We are aware of the sexism, ageism and prejudice in the country at that time because of the description of the 'cathouses' where the ranch workers would go visit prostitutes. By referring to them as cathouses they are essentially calling women animals, and this disrespect is also demonstrated to Curley's wife.

From reading the full description of Curley's wife's appearance we can see she has put a lot of effort into her appearance by her choice of colour. She has curled her hair (to sausages), and uses the colour red in her outfit. Red us seen as a powerful, passionate and deep colour. Her choice of colour indicates that she is looking for attention. Nonetheless, George immediately comes to conclusions with Curley's wife within minutes. "Jesus what a tramp". George's comment however is prejudice because in fact George is completely unaware of her sexual behaviour.
George's ignorance and prejudice is mainly due to his lack of education. Steinbeck identifies this through George's language; "Well he ain't now" George's character is of a ranch worker doing physically enduring work to simply provide him with simple necessities such as shelter, food and some pay. The money that the ranch worker's did earn was often spent at 'cathouses' on prostitutes. Because of George's situation due to American society at that time, George is only acting prejudice, sexist and agist because that is how everyone was at that time. Throughout the novel there is no actual evidence that Curley's wife is a tramp.

In conclusion, Steinbeck uses language methods to portray the attitudes and society of America during the Great Depression. He does this through the ranch workers poor language and the prejudice attitudes commonly spread through America at the time. These attitudes are completely prejudice. I believe Steinbeck accurately presents the attitudes of George and others through the language and the main theme of prejudice.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1

Soraia

really sorry, didn't mean to negative you and i am pretty bad with technology so I don't know how to un-negative it! :s-smilie:

I'm revising too, it's a good answer but I wouldn't say that her hair presents her as ugly, as Steinbeck's descriptions are contrary to that as they often present her as attractive and dangerous. :smile:

good luck!

Reply 2

Giant

Original post by dominielee

I did this exam last year and managed to get an A*, so I'll try my best to give you some honest feedback from what little I remember.

The question is about various methods - and you have clearly talked about themes that run through the book, language in terms of what the characters say and imagery, by talking about the red that she wears. This is very good because in the exam it is essential to talk about different methods; themes, speech/language and imagery. Having a range of points on these themes will take you to the top band.

You seem to have used quotes to back up the points you make, but sometimes you don't actually explain in enough detail the quote and I feel you could have used a bit more of them to add substance to your answer. General revision of the book will help here. I had a really good teacher who gave us a list of really good quotes from throughout the book so I chose the question that was for the whole book usually - but it doesn't matter too much.

Overall, it was a clearly structured answer, although you could have made it a lot simpler by having one paragraph for each point. By breaking it up like you did can sometimes make it confusing. Conclusion was fine. Introduction was fine.

I'd give it a high A/low A*. Good, but there is room for improvement.

Keep revising, and good luck for your exam :smile:

PS. Ask your teacher to grade it, he/she won't mind. Or, look at the mark scheme (you can get one online if you don't already have one) and you can grade it yourself and see what you could improve upon. Don't take my word as gold, because like I said, I did this exam a year ago so I'm going all on memory at the moment.

Reply 3

BigDSpartan

Personally, I don't think that you used enough actual quotes from the book in itself. I think a few more quotes and some more detail will get you close to full marks