OMAM Blog 4/21/15

Of Mice and Men 
By: John Steinbeck
Pages: 1-37
Prompt:
-Describe the atmosphere of the ranch and bunkhouse. Be sure to include characteristics of different characters that were formally or informally introduced to us in this chapter. Support your choice with textual evidence and interpretation.
-Why doesn't Curley's wife have a name? 
-What message, if anything, is John Steinbeck trying to send by not giving her a first name? Support your choice with textual evidence and interpretation.

           The atmosphere of the ranch and bunkhouse is friendly, but sometimes tense. It is friendly because so far, most of the characters introduced have been friendly. Slim for example is really friendly to George an Lennie. He talks to them as if they were automatically friends. Another example would be Carlson. He befriends George and Lennie too and is not suspicious of them or mean to them. It is tense because of Curley and the way he acts and talks. Examples of his actions and words would be, "... he demanded angrily.", "Curley scowled at him...", and "Curley popped into the doorway again and stood looking into the room."

             I think that Curley's wife does not have a name because she might not have a name in general or she might not like her name. She could have never formally introduced herself to anybody and that is why nobody knows her name. She might prefer just to be called Curley's wife because she hates her real name.

             I think that John Steinback was trying to send one of two messages by not giving her a first name. The first one is that women were not respected enough back then to be called by their name. That they were seen as a man's property rather than an actual person which is really sad. The second message is that Curley's wife does not deserve a name because she is too much of a "...tramp..." as George calls her.