Enska 503
Sonja Guðlaugsdóttir
The murder by John Steinbeck
The short story I am going to work with is called The Murder and it is written by author John
Steinbeck. Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, 1902. He went to Stanford University
but never graduated. His novels are well known but The Grapes of Wrath, which was
published in 1939, is considered his best work. The Murder is a part of a collection of short
stories called The Long Valley. The story takes place in California in the early days of
settlement. In this report I am going to discuss the oppression and the racism that is going on
in the story and also the relationship between Jelka and Jim.
Jim is a farmer, kind of a cowboy, living in Cañon del Castillo valley in California. He has
been married to his wife, Jelka a Jugo-slavek girl, for some time and is clearly unhappy in his
marriage. Although Jim is mesmerized with Jelkas´ beauty, her perfect skin, black straight
hair and dark eyes, they have absolutely nothing in common and live totally separate lives.
Jim goes in to town every Saturday night to hang out at the pub and chat with some girls and
does not come home until the day after, so you get the feeling that he is cheating on Jelka.
One night Jim comes early home because of rumors of thieves and finds Jelka in bed with her
cousin. Jim gets upset and shoots the cousin.
In the story there is lot of racism and oppression, especially against women. In the story it is
suggested that Jugo-Slavek girls are used to being beaten as you can see by the conversation
that Jim had with Jelka´s father when they got married. There he suggest that Jim should beat
Jelka, doesn’t matter if she being bad or good. He clearly beats his wife and his father beated
his wife. You can also see that Jelka has been oppressed all her life by the way that she acts,
especially towards Jim. She does not speak unless she is spoken to, she does nothing but
serving him and obeying everything he says. But then there is an other side of her that was
brave enough to cheat on Jim, in his own house. She is a bit mysterious but then again he is
to. He tends to contradict himself. He told Jelka’s father he would never beat her or hurt her
and he also tells the sheriff that but then he beats her up so bad that she can not eat. There is
also a lot of racism in this story as you can clearly see by the way the sheriff reacts to the
murder. Perhaps it was because he was only a foreigner his death was not taken seriously and
although there would be a technical charge filed against Jim, the sheriff assures Jim that it will
Adda María Jóhannsdóttir
Enska 503
Sonja Guðlaugsdóttir
be dismissed, there for saying that what he did can be justified. While reading the story, for
some reason, you starting feeling sympathy for Jim although he is kind of the bad guy in the
story. The author somehow makes you feel that Jim was in fact a good man, it is like he had
no other choice but to beat her. Jelka´s reaction to his beating is also a bit strange. There he
had been beating her with a nine-foot loaded bull whip and then she offers him a breakfast
like she knew that she deserved it. And when he offers to help her out of the shirt, she
declines showing no weakness. Their last conversation, where he tells her that he is not going
to beat her more, for this, leaves you wondering; is he going to start beating her on regular
basis?
All in all I really liked this story which clearly shows how much injustice women live with in
the world and not just in the past but also at our time. A good read that I would recommend
for everybody to take a look at.
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Sonja Guðlaugsdóttir
Adda María Jóhannsdóttir