Violence In 'Blood Relations And Simple Recipes'

In Sharron Pollock’s, Blood Relations, the play follows the conflict of Lizzie Borden, and her family, who pressure her to wed a widowed man, Johnny Macleod, which leads to her emotional breakdown and decision to murder her step-mother and father, and in the short story “Simple Recipes” by Madeline Thien, it is narrated from the viewpoint of a daughter from a Malaysian-Chinese immigrant family, who’s family has conflicts with adapting to their new culture in Vancouver Canada, while maintaining their native culture to please their father. With both works of literature, Lizzie and the daughter are conflicted with the wishes and demands of their fathers, as both daughters witness or experience violence from their fathers, and characters outside

Violence in Blood Relations is very evident, and it is presented multiple times in the play, which affects Lizzie Borden the most. The first two incident of violence that are presented are by Andrew Borden, who slaps Lizzie, after being irritated by her; the second incident of violence is when Lizzie witness her father killing her pet birds, and the final act of violence is committed by Lizzie, who murders her stepmother Abigail Borden and her father, Andrew Borden. With “Simple Recipes”, the girl does not engage in violence nor does she experience violence; however, she does witness her brother who gets abused by her father. While differing from Lizzie Borden in the sense that the girl is not abused by her father or engaging in violence, it is similar to Lizzie, as she is affected by the scene in which she does witness her brother being severely abused by her father. Because of this both characters have a drastic shift in how they view their fathers. With Lizzie, the most defining moment in the play that impacts her is when her father kills her birds. “He killed my birds! He took an axe and he killed them! Emma, I ran out and held them in my hands, I felt their hearts throbbing and pumping and the blood gushed out of their necks, it was all over my hands don’t you care about that?” (Blood Relations.2.129-131). With “Simple Recipes”, after witnessing the violence, the daughter begins to change her ideas on her father, who seemed idyllic in her thoughts, before she see his violent side. As she says,“I want to stay where I am, facing the wall. I’m afraid that if I turn around and go to him, I will be complicit, accepting a portion of guilt, no matter how small the piece.” (page 346). The father and daughter relationship from both works of literature are changed dramatically from the