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Childhood Violence In The Wild Dogs And The Verb To Kill

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In the transformation between adulthood and childhood violence, gender, nationality all influence how one experiences that change. However, in adolescent coming of age stories the greatest factor affecting transformation is often gender, as illustrated by “The Laughing Man” by J.D. Salinger, “The Wild Dogs” by Peter Skrzynecki, “The Verb To Kill” by Luisa Valenzuela, and “Where are you going” by Joyce Carol Oates. In adolescent stories gender determines one's experience more than nationality because boys tend to experience physical violence while girls tend to experience troublesome relationships.
“The Laughing Man” is a vignette about a boy being watched after school by the “Chief”(71) who is their babysitter. The Chief tells the boys stories …show more content…

The narrator and Janek go to Janek’s house, and when they arrive, they find Olga cheating. Janek gets extremely angry and starts swearing and beating Olga. Janek throws her out of the house: she “literally flew through the air (7) and she has to go to the hospital for “both her hands broken” (8). This is a terrible and frightening experience for a young child to see. After witnessing the beating of Olga, the narrator is more scared, and he has to process this adult situation . This violent act forces him to “grow up” …show more content…

“My sister and i are afraid he’ll catch us one night and kill us”(115) Almost every line of the story dwells on the concept of fear. The girls fear grows into actions “i keep imagining” (115) they don't have any adults to give them a reality check because they are absent. This story doesn't take place in a specific country other than a generic beach. This way the author can focus on how violence affects someone independent of what country it is in. The story “Where Are You Going, Where have you been” is about Connie a girl who lives in the U.S. She goes out with her friends and lives an ordinary life. Her mother is alway comparing her to her sister. Her parents are don’t chaperone the youth in the evenings. She falls into the hands of Arnold Friend, who tries to abduct her. This could happen to any young girls

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