1. Bellringer
Violence in the media is a topic that causes a lot of controversy. In movies like “Saw” violence seems to be just about the gore factor, but can violence be used in a piece of art for a just cause? Why might an author choose to include scenes of violence in a piece? Can you think of any examples?

2. Violence
Real life violence doesn’t contain very much meaning. It pretty much just is. If someone punches you in the face there’s probably not much use in digging around for the “deeper meaning” of what happened. It’s an act of aggression, plain and simple unless…

3. Violence …you’re a character in a novel!
Now it could mean all kinds of different things!
Let’s look at Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out”
What’s the poet up to with violence in this poem?

4. Violence
What does this Violence have to do with man’s relationship to the universe?
The title “Out, out” is an allusion. Find out what it alludes to and let’s see if this helps shed some light on the deeper meanings of the poem.

5. Violence
When you really stop to think about it, violence is everywhere in literature.
What examples of violence have we seen in literature this year in the stories we’ve read and in the lit circle books we’ve discussed?

6. Violence 2 Kinds of violence in literature
Violence that characters do to themselves or other characters and…
Violence that the author does to a character through narration
Ask: “Who is responsible for the violence? The characters or the author?”

7. Violence
There is a guilty party involved in the first kinds of violence (which could be important), but not in the second (unless you count the author)
This may be one way to start analyzing violence: Where is it coming from?

8. Violence Does it look important?
In mystery novels violence and death show up often, but mostly just to move the plot along
For these reason we don’t feel very emotionally connected to the violence in these books

9. Violence William Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses
The main character, Ike McCaslin learns about his repugnant family history by reading family ledgers. He learns that his grandfather had a daughter with one of his slaves, Eunice.
Later, in an act of incest, Ike’s grandfather impregnates Eunice’s Daughter Tomasina

10. Violence Tragically, Eunice’s response is suicide.
There’s no denying that on one level Eunice’s death is both personal and literal
But looking deeper tells us a lot about the institution of slavery
Eunice, has no control over her own life and destiny nor does she have any means to protect her daughter from the perils of slavery

11. Violence
In the utter absence of any freedom or liberty Eunice makes the only decision that she’s allowed
While it’s certainly dark and depressing, the violence that Eunice does to herself helps the reader to understand the horrors of slavery in a way that a history textbook can’t begin to deal with
That’s the power of good literature

12. Violence
Let’s talk about violence in Oedipus Rex Romeo and Juliet Lit Circle Novels
How are the acts of violence in these works more than simple acts of aggression that serve to move the plot forward?

13. Violence What about violence that happens to a character accidentally?
While it might be an accident inside the work we know who’s really responsible for these acts of violence: the author
Both Fay Weldon and Salman Rushdie have books that begin with a plane exploding and bodies plummeting to Earth

14. Violence
In Weldon’s novel, it can be seen that a young survivor’s life is interrupted by violence. Her fall is from innocence to experience.
In Rushdie’s novel the characters fall from a corrupt world into a world even more corrupt.
Same violence, different authorial intentions.

15. Violence
It’s nearly impossible to generalize about the meanings of violence, except that there are generally more than one, and its range of possibilities is far larger than with something like rain or snow. Authors rarely introduce violence straightforwardly, to perform only its one appointed task, so we ask questions.

16. Violence What does this type of misfortune represent thematically?
What famous or mythic death does this one resemble?
Why this sort of violence and not some other?

17. Violence
The answers may have to do with psychological dilemmas, with spirtual crises, with historical or social or political concerns. Almost never, though, are they cut-and-paste, but they do exist, and if you put your mind to it, you can usually come up with some possibilities.

18. Violence
While it may not be pleasant, if we eliminate violence from literature, not only do we lose a lot of meaning, we also lose Shakespeare, Homer, Ovid, John Milton, D.H. lawrence, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Robert Frost, J.R.R. Tolkien, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Saul Bellow, and a host of other amazing writers and thinkers.

19. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
Write three questions you have about the story.
In what way does O’Connor use violence to expand the “message” of the story?
What other interesting devices do you see O’Connor using? How? Where?