American Literature 101

I read the book as a teen-ager, and I remember the Vaseline hand. I did not understand it, but it was definitely sexual and slightly nasty. Curley says he's keeping the hand soft for his wife. Is he pleasuring his wife with a soft hand because he can't please her with his dick? Is he beating and hurting his wife with the hand, but not leaving marks?

Maybe this is one of those things that is more disturbing because it is not clearly explained.

If I remember correctly, the implication was he kept it soft for jacking off.

As I remember Curley was keeping his hand soft for his wife. I assumed it meant for pussy play. Ranch hands would usually have heavily calloused hands.

I've seen the Burgess Meredith and Lone Channey Jr. version, and I've read the book. But I've not seen this Gary Sinise and John Malkovich version.

SJG

Reading different ideas on-line was interesting. I took it to mean manual stimulation of his young wife - but some felt, like Lone Wolf, that it was for his own maturabatory pleasure.

Some suggested he was impotent so he was fisting his wife. The "accepted" safe middle school teacher explanation is merely "fondling or caressing her breasts"

Some thought it was not sexual at all. Since he was the son of the ranch owner, it was a show of power - that he didn't have to work.

I just thought of the album "Smell the Glove" by Spinal Tap. The cover was to show a girl on her hands and knees on a leash, with a gloved fist in her face. The band members thought it was "sexy"

As I know, Curley is a kind of distressed character. Like they said, he's a little guy who is angry because he's not a big guy.

So he demands that the head mule skinner accept back the puppy have gave Curley's wife.

I think the idea is also that his wife is a "tart". I don't think that is really fair, but she is not happy hanging around the house during the days, out in the middle of nowhere.

Curley does not really have to work. But it is not clear that his father respects him like he does the head mule skinner. Curley said that his father would never let him fire the mule skinner.

Sometimes the son of a rich rancher is sent to college, or even to law school. This is not Curley, but he is not necessarily the equal of the working men either. He is in a tough spot.

I didn't take the gloved hand as a show of power, rather it's that he enjoys his wife, but he is also concerned and protective of her.

I think the story shows that there is tension at all levels of our society. It is there among the ranch hands and in their dream of having a place of their own, but it is also there among the owners.

Personally I don't think Steinbeck is all that good. But he is better than the earlier types of novels by the likes of Henry James, stuff written for middle class women.

People say that Steinbeck is technically competent. I disagree. In Travels with Charley, he gives three different accounts of how much 30 gallons of water weighs. He talks about buying new tires for the 3/4 ton pickup truck with the camper, special tires because it is carrying a heavy load. But he never tells us the tire size, pressure, or load rating. That would have been of interest to someone then, as those trucks were common. I know all about tire sizes, pressures, and load ratings, because I read the info on parked vehicles.

In Grapes of Wrath he is completely off base about how to replace a collapsed piston in an automobile engine. He writes about it, but he does not have a clue what he is taking about.

Steinbeck does though evoke sympathy and identification with common people. In Dubious Battle is about a strike to form a labor union. There is one about people adrift in a lifeboat. He makes the Joad Family very likeable in Grapes of Wrath.

Cannery Row is great. But the sequel, written after the war, in memory of that Doc who ran the biological supply, is sappy and sentimental.

East of Eden should have been good, and he does put out a few good ideas. But that is it. The woman who becomes the Madam of the whore house is inspired by his second wife, a movie actress. She is a frightening character.

If think Steinbeck has some strengths, but overall he is only so so.

Ever read any Henry Miller?

SJG

I have no idea what SJG wrote but I doubt it is correct as he is a moron and wrong about everything.

Candy says that the glove is full of vaseline, and that Curley says that he's keeping the hand soft for his wife. George says that is a dirty thing to tell around. Presumably, Curley is keeping his hand soft for a sex act with his wife. Later in the same chapter, George mentions the glove again, and theorizes that Curley is probably eating raw eggs and ordering patent medicines through mail order, presumably to build his sexual stamina. The overall implication is that Curley's wife is accustomed to frequent and varied intercourse, and that Curley is struggling to meet her demands.

War and Peace sucks 'cause Tolstoy got the range of the 1812 muskets completely wrong ! If you use a .45 caliber lead ball with proper packing they should go out to a hundred yards and he had them lethal at two hundred. What a fucking retard. Lousy book , stupid author! Jaws sucks too 'cause there are real big sharks like that. Ruined the book for me.

didn’t michael jackson have a gloved vaseline hand? i’ll bet it is some sort of identification system kinda like the bloods and crips have their blue and red colors. it must be a case of which hand the glove is worn on to signify whether they are hollywood faggots or san jose faggots but i don’t know which hand means which.

hey @san_jose_guy, which hand do you wear your vaseline glove on?

Not that I'm an expert but I always took it to mean that his wife in round about terms has complained about him being too rough sexually and therefore tries to avoid sex if at all possible. Curly not having a clue that he is hurting her thinks that he's a great guy because he's softening his hand and continues the physical abuse without even knowing that's what he's doing. In some ways this is a parallel to George and the mouse he keeps petting. Neither is capable of understanding the effects of their behavior but one character is sympathized and the other hated (rightly so).

ime etal, have you guys read "Of Mice and Men"? When compared to what else was passing for literature back then, it ain't bad.

SJG