Violence and Recent Novels

In Mosley's novel, Easy Rawlins is a veteran of the violence World War II and a man with a civilian past shaped in part by criminal activity and violence. He is trying now to live a life of peace and relative prosperity, but because of racism he is forced to enter once again into the world of violence and crime in order to survive. In the context of that theme, Easy's house serves as a symbol of the straight life, the middle-class dream of peace and comfort. The need of Easy to keep the house is what first drives him back into the world of violence. Therefore, the house is a complex symbol with contradictory elements.

In Hurston's story, Delia Jones is a hard-working woman who is struggling to free herself from her violen

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ull of violence. But I was a big man too. And, like most young men, I never liked to admit that I could be dissuaded by fear (Mosley 12). Easy certainly engages in a great deal of violence in the book, but at the same time he resists it at every opportunity and rarely does it with the kind of relish exhibited by his far more violent friend Mouse. Still, Easy lives in a world which seems at every turn to tempt him into violent acts. He is surrounded by men who live according to the dictates of physical or other forms of domination and power. His boss at the plant, the cops who grill him, Albright, Mouse--all these and other characters in one way or another try to draw him into expressions of violence to save himself physically, economically, or psychologically. The fact that he maintains his resistance speaks to his continuing freedom to at least try to choose the non-violent way. This freedom is expressed clearly in the final pages of the book, in which Easy proudly declares that he has a job which gives him money, independence, and a life relatively free of violence, although, as he tells Odell, "a man could end up dead just crossin' the street" (Mosley 214). He has also managed to maintain not only his own house but another on
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Delia Jones, Sykes Hurston, Albright Mouse--all, Mowry's Jeremy, Robert Ardrey's, Neale Hurston's, War II, Raglan Jeremy's, Mosley's Easy, DeWitt Albright, free violence, hurston's story, crusader rabbit, donaldson york st, life free violence, st martin's, melvin donaldson, donaldson york, york st, devil blue dress, notre dame, cornerstones ed melvin, violence emphasized, ed melvin donaldson, martin's press,
Approximate Word count = 1702
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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