Curley analysis omam

Hello! Yes I am worried about the exam as well on Monday! Eek! Is it okay if you mark or just at least read my answer for Curley. I would be very grateful! Thank you very much! Also, tell me how you are feeling about the exam on Monday.

THE ANSWER TO 'How Is Curley Significant in OMAM?

Curley is significant in John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' for a number of reasons. Curley is the Boss' son on the farm and is a small, angry and aggressive character who has little to no authority over the ranch hands partly due to the lack of respect that he receives from everyone. He can be seen as disaffected by his isolation and loneliness on the farm by lacking the qualities of being a loving and caring husband. He uses his wife to show off on the ranch as an effort to gain respect from the ranch hands.

Firstly and most importantly, Curley is seen as the villain of the ranch. He is aggressive and 'he's alla time picking scraps with big guys'. He specifically targets 'big guys' because he wants to gain respect from the ranchers by showing them his fighting skills. This shows that he often feels insecure that no-one is friends with him and he tries hard to win their friendship by showing his power.His unpopularity can be seen by what everyone says about him. George states that he is a 'son-of-a-bitch' and even his wife says that 'he aint a nice fella'. This means that no one respects him partly because of his aggressive and dismissive attitude. George says that Curley is an example of what happens when people 'get lonely' and don’t have 'nobody'. Steinbeck is therefore using Curley to show why George does not want to leave Lennie and travel alone. This exemplifies the importance of their friendship in this microcosmos and other friendships in the isolated and individualistic society in which it is set.

In addition, he is married to Curley's Wife and there is a great deal of significance in this relationship. He has been married to his young wife for two weeks and is clear that he is simply using her as a 'trophy wife' to show off to the other ranchers that he is in a relationship. They are not happy together and they are never seen together in the novella apart from when she is dead and even then he is more worried about taking revenge and looking powerful than his cold dead wife. He uses her to exert his sexual authority in the ranch and that he has a relationship when all of the other ranchers do not. This relationship represents many situations in America during this time. Curley's Wife is repressed by Curley and she is property of Curley (because of the lack of a name) because he is a male and dominates the relationship.Steinbeck deliberately does not give her a name to take away a sense of freedom, individuality, identity and authority from her life. She feels trapped in this relationship and thinks that Curley ' Aint a nice fella' which shows that she has no power in the marriage as she cannot do what she wants, which is talk to people on the ranch. This links with Steinbeck's theme of women and how Curley does not understand his wife's needs in their clearly unhappy marriage. Also, the lack of attention he gives his wife could be seen as a reason why George and Lennie's dream comes crashing down. His lack of affection he gives to his wife leads her to become lonely thus she craves the attention from other ranch workers to compliment her and talk to her. This means that Lennie becomes interested in her and she talks to Lennie where she ends up dead. This is very significant as it shows that a mixture of both seeking respect and a lack of attention to his wife causes the events at the end of the novella. So he can be partly to blame for the deaths in the novel.

Penultimately, Curley feels threatened by larger guys because he is small (even when he is wearing high heeled boots). He has no authority on the ranch and tries to show people his power physically by preying on the larger (but mentally weaker) ranch hands, such as Lennie. This is because he feels intimidated by larger guys and shows his insecurities about what people think about him. This hatred he has for Lennie causes tension throughout the book and gives the reader a foreboding message that there is going to be clashes and collisions later in the novella.

Curley is isolated on the ranch. His whole demeanor is based on it. Curley picks fights and uses his wife to gain respect from the ranch hands, but it doesn’t work. Not working on the farm and his provocative attitude has driven of any potential ally ships on the ranch, leaving him just as lonely and isolated as every other character in the novella because no one reconsises his authority or efforts to make friends. He is trapped on the ranch and destined to run it one day. His position has moulded his personality and has made his the brute that he is, because no one sees his as a normal racher because of his high status. His dream is to be respected and popular but this will never be because of his position. This shows that everyone is isolated on the ranch some way or another. He conveys many of Steinbeck's themes and shows what people can become if isolated and what they will go to.

Reply 1

WaveyOmar

thanks now i know what to write about

Reply 2

iamhasana

In the 3rd paragraph you go on a wonder about curley's wife who has very little significance in Curly's role. They don't even talk to each other throughout the entire novella. Either than that it look good

Reply 3

emilyflo

A point that I often mention is that Curley has inherited his high status in the social hierarchy by being the boss' son, which could contribute as to why he feels insecure on maintaining and asserting his power. He also has a strange relationship with Slim, because Slim has worked for his power and gained respect of other ranchmen, which Curley may resent.

Reply 4

JessThomas6

I like that you mention his wife, it adds a depth of understanding IMO
I agree with Emily, you may want to mention that he has inherited his power so people resent him, so he may not have respect and he may want to keep his power secure, which is a contrast to Slim

I'm feeling quite confident actually, I've done so many past papers that I think it'll go smoothly

Reply 5

Ed Jeffrey

Cool. Thank you all of your comments and I shall consider them for tomorrow! :smile:

I really appreciate that you have helped me!

Reply 6

JessThomas6

Original post by Ed Jeffrey

Cool. Thank you all of your comments and I shall consider them for tomorrow! :smile:

I really appreciate that you have helped me!

Good luck! If Curley comes up I'm acing this b**** I've focused so much on him 😂

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 7

sabia siddique

Original post by JessThomas6

Good luck! If Curley comes up I'm acing this b**** I've focused so much on him 😂

Posted from TSR Mobile

Same here! I've also focused alot on candy as people are predicting either Curley or Candy

Reply 8

JessThomas6

Original post by sabia siddique

Same here! I've also focused alot on candy as people are predicting either Curley or Candy

Yeah
All the predictions I've seen for both OMAM and AVFTB have been things I have revised tons, so I hope that they do come up!

Reply 9

sabia siddique

Original post by JessThomas6

Yeah
All the predictions I've seen for both OMAM and AVFTB have been things I have revised tons, so I hope that they do come up!

Good Luck! :smile:

)

Reply 10

theama

I've notices none of the essays on tsr have deep analysis and by this I mean picking specific words apart and structural analysis and this IS required for an A* and to make your work stand out from the rest.

Reply 11

iamhasana

The troll if AQA choose carlson :biggrin:

Reply 12

JessThomas6

Original post by theama

My teacher's shown us all sorts of A* exemplar work
Some she's said are closer to Uni level, like the ones you're mentioning. She said if you can do it go for it, but make sure you have enough time
She's shown us other ones that are quite in depth but nothing like that and they've still been A*

Reply 13

theama

Original post by JessThomas6

I just think that you should be picking apart little words which show the characters etc.

Reply 14

JessThomas6

Original post by theama

I just think that you should be picking apart little words which show the characters etc.

Yeah, we've been told just don't spend 15 minutes writing a paragraph about 1 word haha

Reply 15

JG12333

If you guys are doing aqa, the key thing is to analyse language extremely closet in the extract you have to write about, but, it isn't AS important to do this in the 2nd question.

Reply 16

hammad577

These will definitely 100% come up - So it's up to you if you listen or not - An Inspector Calls: Question will be about Mr Birling, The Crucible: Abigail and John's relationship and OMAM: Curley - It's up to you if you want to follow my advice or not but remember this when you see these come up on the exam paper. This guy told me, but he won't tell me where he got it from. I looked up past papers to see what has come up what hasn't etc. and these topics he told me correlates with what hasn't come up. So it's up to you if you follow or not