Steinbeck wants the reader to feel ill-will towards Curley's wife because she is very coquettish (flirty). She flirts with all the men on the ranch, even though she's married to Curley (hence the name Curley's wife). She makes up ridiculous reasons to talk to the guys, like she feels "lonely" with "no one to talk to", when she in reality has her husband. I don't think that she should not talk to anyone but Curley, but I don't think that she has to flirt with every guy on the ranch. She can talk to other people, but she has no right to flirt with all the guys she sees, just because she feels "lonely". Steinbeck shows that he wants to feel apathy towards Curley's wife by having all the "ranch- hands" hate her. All of the men on the ranch loathe Curley's wife. "You got no rights comin' in a colored man's room. You got no rights messing around in here at all. Now you jus' get out, and get out quick. If you don't, I'm gonna ast the boss not to ever let you come in the barn no more." (p. 80) He doesn't give Curley's wife a name, because even though she plays a big part in the story, he feels that she isn't important enough or good enough to have a name. She is simply called "Curley's wife". Curley isn't better than his wife in my opinion, but he has a name, and his wife is recognized by his name. Steinbeck portrays the very few women in the book as "coquettish" and "trashy", but I doubt that he really feels that way about all the women. The only other woman in the book is the woman who was in "Weed" was so-called harassed. Lennie only touched her dress, but she said that he had raped her or something like that. Steinbeck wants us to see that she is a bad person and that she thinks nothing of herself by telling us her dreams. She wants to be a movie star and she blames h...