The Individual And Society In Relation To The Context Of Violence

The Individual and Society
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The Individual and Society
Andre Dubus’ “Killings” is a short story written in 1979 (Dubus, 2010). The story depicts the struggle of parents Ruth and Matt Fowler after their son Frank Fowler was murdered. Frank had started dating Mary Ann Strout after she had been separated from her husband, Richard Strout, for only a month. Although her divorce was not official yet, and disregarding their age difference, Frank still falls in love with Mary Ann. Richard Strout shoots and kills Frank in front of his wife and children. Matt, after knowing his son's murderer, plots with his friend Willis to kill Richard. Matt and his wife Ruth believe that Richard who is out on bail and awaiting trial will not receive an appropriate jail term for his crime. Matt, therefore, has to deal with the loss of his son and the guilt of murdering his killer.
In another story, “Rose” by Andre Dubus, a man at a bar tells the story of Rose (Dubus, 2010). She is an older Catholic lady who has recently started being a regular at the tavern. Rose narrates to the unnamed man the tragic story of her marriage to a man named Jim. In summary, on a particular night, at the height of abuse spanning many years, Jim throws their son against a wall and he breaks his arm. Rose hurries to take their son to the hospital and as she leaves, Jim sets their apartment on fire, with their two daughters still inside. Rose goes back into the flames and manages to save their daughters. Afterwards, she repeatedly runs her husband over with her car in the parking lot, gets arrested and let off on charges of justifiable homicide. Her children are taken away from her custody and she never tries to look for them choosing instead to drink her guilt and sadness away (Dubus, 2010).
“The Vigilante” written by John Steinbeck is about a man called Mike who is a part of the mob that has just lynched a black man accused of a crime, after breaking him out of his cell (Meyer et al., 2006). Even after the man has died, some people still want to burn him using a lit newspaper which Mike is against. He then walks to a bar hoping to find a few people he can talk to only to find Welch, the bartender. Welch only caught the last part of the lynching and proceeds to ask Mike about the events that preceded the hanging of the man.
In “The Murder”, still by John Steinbeck, Jim Moore owns a house next to a castle that he has contemplated burning several times (Meyer et al., 2006). He marries a Slav woman, Jelka, whose father encourages him to beat her up to keep her in ...