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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28452
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28452
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm not sure that the phrase "Curley's wife" was intended to express possession. Be careful not to view things through a contemporary political lens. (Actually, two points here: don't let contemporary politics color your interpretation, and don't assume that literature was intended to be read in the intensely political way it is read today.) Rather, I think referring to "Curley's wife" was simply a way of distancing him from her and all that she represents: home and family. This is a story of migrant farm workers and as such it is a story of men separated from their families. Not naming Curly's wife expressed that separation. None of these men are ever going to meet Curly's wife. She belongs to a different world from which they are all alienated.

Names express relationships. The same person may be John, Mr Smith, dad, honey, grandpa, uncle John, Sir, Captian, son, or Mary's husband. Each one of those expresses a relationship. That is the principal effect of the names you choose in a story: to express the status and relationship of a charter relative to others. Some authors, Dickens and Rowling come to mind particularly, also used names to suggest character. Thus you know just from hearing their names that Mr. Gradgrind, or Uriah Heap are not going to be pleasant companions.

Original score: 9