For my presentation I wanted to talk about the way violence was described in the book. Numerous times in the book when the characters were talking about violent acts they seemed very emotionless and impassive. For example when the narrator is talking about Violet slashing Dorcas’ face during the funeral, the way she’s talking about it seems very casual and unemotional. It’s as if Violet’s insane act is normal and things like that happen all the time. Violet also doesn’t get in trouble for her act and simply gets thrown out of the church. I also find it interesting how Alice Manfred doesn’t do anything about the fact that Joe shot her niece. She doesn’t want to tell the police because she mistrusts them so she simply does nothing. Why do you think in the novel these violent acts are talked about in such casual and impassive tone? Does it say something about society during that time?
