Curley’s wife does not have a relationship with anyone on the ranch, except for her husband, who is shows signs of being abusive. On the ranch, she is ignored and detested by the ranch hands, which isolates her from her community. Her treatment is based upon the decisions she made, but does that make it fair treatment of a human being? She is on the ranch because she married Curley, the Boss’ Son. Her purpose in the story is to cause conflict. Even though she isn’t necessarily trying to start fights, she is similar to a Catalyst in biology.

Some of her personality traits include being Pretty, Disagreeable, Cautious, Optimistic, Disrespectful, and Naïve. I chose a frog as a symbol for Curley’s wife because even though she is seen as slimy and gross and detested by the men on the ranch, they also think she is pretty. In addition to that, I chose a frog as a symbol for Curley’s wife because she hops from person to person and from interest to interest. 

The Colors that I chose for Curley’s Wife are green and yellow. 

I chose Green because Curley’s wife was still very young and growing when she died. I chose a darker green though, because plants turn a darker green when they are close to reaching their full potential for growth. Curley’s wife could have grown more, but she would never. 

I chose yellow because Curley’s wife was very optimistic and light hearted. She thought that she deserved more in life, and she believed that she would get more. I think that yellow embodies those aspects of her personality the best.

Some of Curley’s wife’s best qualities were that she was very optimistic and opportunist. She believed that she would get the life she dreamed about, and took steps to create that life, up until the very moment she died. Some of Curley’s wife’s worst qualities were that she was blind, naïve, and overconfident. She went into a situation that she knew she shouldn't be in, and that got her killed. If she had left when Lennie told her to, she might’ve lived to old age. 

“She appraised him coolly.”

I chose this quote from the story because Curley’s wife always seems to be very cautious about what she does. She doesn’t always makes the right decision, but every decision she makes is obvious that a lot of thought has been put behind it. She has to think and plan to try for any kind of freedom. 

“I never seen nobody like her… I don’t know what the hell she wants.”

This quote best describes Curley’s Wife because her intentions on the ranch are often assumed, even though the ranch hands have no idea what is going through her head. She is also different from everyone on the ranch, for one main reason: she is oppressed, but can/will not interact with the other oppressed people on the ranch.  

One personal real world connection, for me, is how desperate Curley’s Wife became when she was lonely. When she had a support system of friends and family, when she was younger, she was okay with not being the best, not being someone important. But as she got older and her support system drifted away, she sought out more and more validation. I think that a lot of people struggle with that need to be validated, and maybe we should learn from Curley’s Wife that it doesn’t work out well.

A Second real world connection is the treatment of people viewed as lesser than you. Because of how Lennie viewed Curley’s Wife, it hurt him. If Lennie had seen Curley’s Wife as a human, like George, he wouldn’t have treated her like he treated the mice and the pup. Because of how he viewed her, he ended up killing her, which resulted in George killing him. Likewise, if George had shown Lennie that Curley’s Wife was an actual human being, and not an object, he wouldn’t have lost his best friend. 

An important theme to remember is that how you treat other will be reflected back onto you. Curley’s Wife was never particularly kind to anyone in the book, and at points she was downright hateful. When she was killed, she was killed in a hateful, angry way.

Another theme to remember is that life is easier with company. Curley’s wife had no one on the ranch she could talk to, she was fully and truly alone, perhaps for the first time in her life. This led her to make increasingly risky decisions, which ultimately led to her life being taken from her.

Curley’s Wife hoped for a bigger life than the one she had. Because of her greed, or maybe because of how she went about her ambitions (we’ll never know), she ended up dead, with no life.