In chapter 5 of
Of Mice and Men, we see Curley's wife's greatest ambitions. Since she was a young girl, her goal was to become an actress. When she was talking to Lennie, she told him about her dream with longing and regret. As soon as I read this, it reminded me of an Indian movie that I recently watched. In this movie, one of the characters, Ruby, moved to the city with dreams of becoming a big actress but she faced many obstacles. She couldn't get a part in any movie and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get a job. This made her bitter with resentment. It lowered her self-esteem, making her hate herself. This slowly worsened into depression.
In this scene of the movie, you can see the hope and longing on Ruby's face as she watches a movie. She wants to be up there with everyone watching
her but it is nearly impossible for her to achieve it in her current state. How can anyone believe that she can do it, if she doesn't believe in herself?
The same thing happened with Curley's wife. She had dreams of being famous and having all the attention on herself but it never happened. She ended up marrying Curley in desperation and has been living that way every since. She has been struggling with loneliness and solitude, as everyone else on the farm has been avoiding her. These are two different women struggling to reach the same goal despite the countless obstacles that come their way.
This is the ending of Chapter 5 in John Steinbeck's
Of Mice and Men. Curley's wife had a bipolar personality throughout the entire story, but she didn't deserve to die for anything that she did. She was one of the most innocent characters in the story. This is an accurate representation of the many obstacles that women faced during the Great Depression. Not this situation exactly, but prejudice against them because of their gender.
This was really interesting Nithya, maybe I should watch this movie :) Do you think Curley's wife would have had a chance of making it big if she never got married to Curley? I think becoming a star was Curley's wife's "American Dream" but because of the depression, she had to get married and give up on her dream just to survive. After all, a married white woman with no kids had the best chance of living through the depression. I think many people might have had to give up on their dreams during that time just to survive. I really hope Ruby got a happy ending in the movie.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post Nithya! I liked how you compared Curley Wife's dreams to a girl in a movie. I agree that both of the women had the same dreams. Also Curley's Wife never accomplished her dreams because 1) she married Curley and 2) because of all the depression she had faced. One question..Will I be able to watch this movie ;)?
ReplyDeleteThis blog post was really insightful. I think the comparison that you made with Curly's wife to the movie about a girl not able to fulfill her dreams is also true for many women around the world today. Women who cannot accomplish their goals and end up making choices that they regret to survive. Do you think that women today who are in the same situation that Curly's wife was in have an advantage of achieving their goals? Or will the decisions that they made to survive result in losing any hope of doing what they want to do? The Great Depression made it hard for many woman to fulfill their dreams which resulted in many of them to become depressed because of not accomplishing their goals.
ReplyDeleteSorry, this comment is Mayura's, not Sindhu.
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