Violence In Foster's Of Mice And Men

Can there be more than one type of violence? Maybe not in real life, but in literature there sure is! The two types of violence, authorial and narrative, were first introduced to us in Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor. The novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck depicts these types of violence in three different scenarios, and tells how these violences are different from each other. The killing of Lennie, the killing of Curley’s wife, and the fight between Lennie and Curley all had different effects on the novel due to the different types of violence.

Authorial violence is violence generated by the author in order to add elements to the novel’s plot. “... authorial violence, I mean the death and suffering authors
Foster explains narrative violence on pages 96 and 97. “... narrative violence that causes harm in general… would include the usual range of behavior- shootings, stabbings, garrotings, drownings, poisonings, bludgeonings, bombings hit-and-run accidents, starvations, you name it.” (96- 97) Narrative violence is important in the story, as it gives greater understandings of characters and their actions or relationships. It can also help to create a mood for the story. “... Lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on.... Lennie’s other hand closed over her mouth and nose… “Don’t you go yellin’ “ he said… and he shook her; her body flopped like a fish… then she was still… Lennie had broken her neck.” In the novel, Lennie was mentally challenged, and one of his issues was not knowing his own strength. We see a couple of examples of this, and hear about past incidents. Even though there have been multiple incidents, Lennie doesn’t learn from his mistakes, and this is partially what causes him to kill an innocent woman. In Foster’s novel, narrative violence can be assumed to be used as something to get a better understanding of the characters. You can tell from these incidents a lot about Lennie and the issues he has, this helps readers to better understand why he acted in the ways he did. It also gives the story a bit of a violent and erie mood.

Narrative violence can cause more than one mood or character relationships and actions. The scene of Lennie getting into a fight with Curley in Of mice and Men had a different relationship and meaning for action than the scene with Curley’s wife. “Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it… his closed fist was lost in Lennie’s big hand… Lennie watched it in terror the flopping little man whom he held… suddenly Lennie let go his hold… Curley sat… looking in wonder at his crushed