The Girls

Violence is an important motif in The Girls. It appears as violence enacted on oneself and others, but it also appears in a human being’s capacity for violence. Suzanne displays a violent streak even before she commits the murders at Mitch’s house. Suzanne’s violence is foreshadowed through her dark abyss, her emotional distance from Evie, her abuse of and lack of concern for others. Suzanne cares only about Russell—all other people are subject to her judgment and her hatred. When Suzanne convinces Evie to have sex with Mitch despite Evie’s aversion to him, Suzanne commits a type of sexual abuse because she uses her influence over Evie to force her into nonconsensual sex. Suzanne learns sexual abuse from Russell, who has sex with minors and disguises this abuse as free love. Evie herself becomes violent; she enacts her violence in small ways, such as stealing from and rejecting her mother, as well as breaking into people’s homes. The most gruesome violence in the novel is the massacre at Mitch’s house. The girls and Guy commit murder in heinous and ritualistic ways, with no concern for human dignity. Their impunity and even their elation in violent acts represents how damaged they are. But Evie understands their violence even though she doesn’t commit the ultimate acts of violence. Through Evie’s perspective, Cline analyzes how social pressures facilitate hatred and how that hatred can result in violence. Evie doesn’t commit murder, but she knows that she’s capable of it. There is also violence to oneself, such as the low self-esteem that drives Evie further into Russell and Suzanne’s grasp. Evie, as an adult, is ultimately unable to answer the question that hangs over her: “What if?” Without being able to answer whether she would have joined in the murders, she continues to be haunted by the trauma and violence of her adolescence.