How does Steinbeck present Curley's Wife in Chapter 4 in Of Mice and Men?

When Crooks and Lennie are talking to Candy about their dream of having land in Crooks’s room in the stable, Curley’s wife comes in. We have already been introduced to her. The men on the ranch avoid her because they think she is trouble. They worry that she is a tease. Her entrance seems to confirm this reputation.

"Any you boys seen Curley?"

They swung their heads toward the door. Looking in was Curley's wife. Her face was heavily made up. Her lips were slightly parted. She breathed strongly, as though she had been running. (Ch. 4)

Curley’s wife, Candy, and Crooks all have one thing in common—they are lonely. They were getting along well until Curley’s wife came in. She tells them that all men are scared, so she can get along with one man, but not a group.

Curley’s wife uses the advantage of her status to be rude to the other men. She is racist to Crooks. He was opening up to the other men, disarmed by Lennie’s honesty and genuine nature, but she turned him into a shell again.

Candy stands up to her, telling her to get out. She turns on him too, telling him the only reason he is hanging out with Crooks (and Lennie) is because he has no money.

Curley's wife laughed at him. "Baloney," she said. "I seen too many you guys. If you had two bits in the worl', why you'd be in gettin' two shots of corn with it and suckin' the bottom of the glass. I know you guys." (Ch. 4)

When the conversation turns to how Curley got hurt, she gets angry. The story is that he got his had caught in a machine. She knows this is not true, and asks Lennie about the bruises on his face. Curley’s wife is irritated that they are not telling her the truth. She teases Lennie, calling him “Machine.” Candy tells her to leave Lennie alone. Curley's wife zigzags from wanting to include herself in the men's lives because she is also lonely to belittling and condemning them.

While the reader often feels sorry for Curley's wife, her treatment of Crooks engenders no sympathy. She treats him terribly, looking down on him because of his race. He tries to tell her to leave, and she tells him he has no right to because he is black.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

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