Curley's Wife's Interesting Backround

In part five, we learn all about the dreams and aspirations of Curley's Wife. We also learn how she got stuck with Curley on this ranch. While Lennie sits in the barn with the dead puppies, she confides in Lennie and tells him about her dream of becoming an actress. She tells him how she "'coulda been in the movies, an' had nice clothes...'" (89) but her mother ruined it for her. She did not want her fifteen-year-old child running away to be a movie star, so she prevented her from going to the shows. Curley's Wife is still bitter about that and wishes she was away from the ranch and not married to Curley. She even says to Lennie, "'I don' like Curley. He ain't a nice fella'" (89). Here we see why she has continuously been going out of the house to talk to the guys: she wants to get away from Curley. 

Another thing I noticed that happened in both part four and part five is the fact that everybody is trusting Lennie with their secrets. In chapter four, Crooks told Lennie all about the place he grew up in and how lonely it gets to be the only black person on the ranch. In chapter five (like I said above) Curley's Wife confides in Lennie and tells him how much she hates Curley and how she wishes she could get away from the ranch and become an actress. Now the question is: why do they tell him all these things? Crooks says it best when he talks to Lennie in his quarters, "'A guy can talk to you an' be sure you won't go blabbin'... Jus' talks an' you don't understand nothing,'" (70-71). Curley's Wife, George, and Crooks all know of Lennie's simple mindedness. They know that even if he understood what they were saying, he would forget it later.