Research Paper on:
Violence and How It Functions in the Writings of Richard Wright, William Faulkner, and John Steinbeck

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
for the intellectual and literary mills throughout the ages. The purpose of violence as depicted in novels serves different purposes. Sometimes it is the vehicle by which social inequities and  bigoted stances are exposed. Sometimes it serves as an instrument of instruction by which a person is encouraged to judge and measure oneself by. And, yet, sometimes, it serves as  a warning and reminder that mans greatest capacities for goodness are also tempered with the worlds greatest capacity for evil. What is violence? The definition has been debated since  man was first able to ask the question. Since evil is highly subjective and dependent on ones background, to add a definitive explanation would be illogical at best and inefficient  at most. Therefore, what one is left with are the basic characteristics of violence. What one is also left with is the existence of God. If evil exists and terrible  things occur in the world, how can an all knowing all seeing God allow such things to happen? Each author, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright seem to come  to varying conclusions on this issue. First of all, the basic characteristics of violence, as most will agree is that which causes harmful destruction to a person. There are those  who would stretch the definition to include all living beings, but then that would open the interpretation and debate to include animals. The debate is long enough without this added  element, suffice it to say, it will be left out of this particular discussion. There are also those who would state that the use of the words harmful destruction are  also subjective in nature as ones version of harmful may differ from anothers. Therefore, for sake of argument, violence is that which seeks to cause irreparable damage and breed chaos.