Explore the Relationship Shown Towards Curley’s Wife by Crooks and Candy

Explore the relationship shown towards Curley’s wife by Crooks and Candy. Section 4 In the extract given Crooks and Candy talk to Curley’s wife. In the extract we see Curley’s wife approach crooks and Candy and we see the relationship between them and how it explores how they have no respect for Curley’s wife.

In the extract crooks approaches and insults Curley’s wife, which is quite significant as he is a black man and in the 1930’s Many black people were not respected and treated badly so the fact he has the courage to stand up to Curley’s wife suggests that he loathes her and does not care whether he gets in troubles as he disrespects her and does not care about her, this suggests that the relationship between crooks and is that Crooks is not showing any respect to Curleys wife even though he is black and she is white which states that he doesn’t care about hierarchy if someone is disloyal to their husband.

Candy also has a similar relationship with Curley’s wife as he also gets angry when she enters crooks’ room he says “if you were to do that we’d tell” this suggests that even though he does not get angry and even though he is a fragile old man he still believes that he can tell off Curley’s wife however he then backs down as he realises that a black man and an old fragile man cannot do anything against her so they both back down and we see the true nature of Curley’s wife as she gets angry.

When Candy and Crooks start to retaliate against Curleys wife she becomes angry and authorative as she says to crooks “Listen nigger; you know what I can do to you if you open your trap” the fact Steinbeck uses words like nigger suggests she does not respect him at all and believes is not worth anything and she then refers to his mouth being a “trap” which suggests that she thinks that he is not supposed to be respected and his mouth is like a trap as it will get her trapped if he says anything but it can also be seen as a insult as it is so disgusting it traps anything so we see that there is no respect towards Crooks.

However when she approaches Candy she is slightly more respectful as he is white and old so she cannot be mean but rather she threatens him as she sys “nobody’d listen to you” which threatens him as she says that even if she did something nobody would trust a old man or a “Nigger” Lennie is also present in the room while this conversation is going on however he does not say anything as previously in the book George told him to stay away from her but Lennie does say “I wish

George was here” this states that he feels insecure and troubled with her around her and wants George there for advice and protection which reinstates his innocence towards anyone however candy does comfort him as he says “don’t you worry none” which suggests that Candy cares and wants to look after Lennie as he is his new business partner in their true American dream towards buying their own ranch, however this shows how curleys wife scares Lennie as he was told to stay away he finds her scary and as he wants to “tend the rabbits” doesn’t want to get in trouble.

To conclude the relationship between curleys wife and crooks and candy is, Crooks and candy stand up to her as they hate and disrespect her so much for being disloyal however as crooks is a nigger and candy is an old man they find out they have no poor to the ranch boss’s son’s wife so they understand there is nothing to do about her so they just silently hate her and don’t say anything as they know they have no authority over her, so for the safety of their life and job they do nothing.