The function of female characters in Steinbeck's fiction : the portrait of Curley's wife in Of mice and men

Abstract

"Preferably a writer should die at about 28. Then he has a chance of being discovered. If he lives much longer he can only be revalued. I prefer discovery." So quipped the Nobel prize-winning American novelist John Steinbeck (1902-1968) to the British journalist Herbert Kretzmer in 1965. Steinbeck died at the age of 66, however, as many critics have noted, there is still a lot about him to be discovered. It must be borne in mind that Steinbeck's reputation as the impersonal, objective reporter of striking farm workers and dispossessed migrants, or as the escapist popularizer of primitive folk, has needlessly obscured his intellectual background, imaginative power and artistic methods. Of course, to think of Steinbeck simply as a naive realist in inspiration and a straightforward journalist while his achievement as a writer extends well beyond the modes and methods of traditional realism or documentary presentation is to disregard the complexities of his art. For this reason, new readings and modern critical approaches constantly shed light on new sources of value in Steinbeck's work.