A Mutilization of Curley's Wife

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leighton-meester/im-not-a-tart-the-feminis_b_5587422.html

Above is a link to a July, 2014, Huffington Post article by actress Leighton Meester illustrating the confusion surrounding Curley's wife (CW) caused by Steinbeck himself.

The ink hadn't dried on the first printing of the novel when Steinbeck had begun a different version for stage and film with versions of CW softened to appeal to a wider audience.

The most condemning scene in the original book version of Curley's wife takes place in Crooks' bedroom, where she has barged in on Crooks, Lennie and Candy, refuses to leave when asked, insults all three, calls Crooks a "n----r," and threatens to have him hanged, standing over him as he cowers on his bed.

This scene has never made it to any film version of Of Mice and Men, nor have I heard of it rendered on stage.

Steinbeck's letter to stage actress Clare Luce is cited in Meester's article as Steinbeck's interpretation of the character, but it was for the stage version, not the original book version.

In no other case have I found that Steinbeck re-interpreted one of his characters. This, his one slip, to my knowledge, on behalf of greed, was uncharacteristic of Steinbeck. The result is widespread confusion about one of the most interesting female characters in American literature, perhaps the best "tart" of all.

But it is a legacy of endless controversy.

Of Mice and Men celebrates the noble anti-heroism of George, who devoted himself to the comfort and well-being of the meek and vulnerable Lennie. It would be a sad mistake to warp the story into a feminist statement on female victimhood, which is what was done in the last film rendition by Gary Senise. The film was in most respects masterfully executed, but it is a Hollywood-ized dismissal of Stenbeck's authorship.

Of Mice and Men is about brotherhood among men and the sabotage of their dreams by a self-absorbed woman. The men didn't pursue Curley's wife. She pursued them. She was the sexual aggressor. She infused their social context with sexual content, thereby contaminating it. Instead of prowling in the barn to get the vulnerable Lennie alone with her, she could have put on overalls and joined the men in a social event, the horseshoe tournament.