âÂÂThe Murderâ is a work of short fiction by John Steinbeck originally published in The North American Review, April 1934. The story was first collected in The Long Valley (1938) by Viking Press.
âÂÂThe Murderâ was the first of Steinbeck's works to win a national award: the 1934 O. Henry prize for short fiction.
Jim Moore, a California rancher, marries a Yugoslavian immigrant girl, Jelka Sepic. At the wedding, Jelka's father offers intoxicated advice to Jim, warning him that his daughter requires regular beating to keep her loyal and tractable. Jim rejects the advice. He is disappointed, however, that no genuine intimacy develops in the relationship, though Jelka is dutiful and performs, bovine-like, her domestic tasks. Jim increasingly finds her demeanor and behavior foreign and strange. Before long, Jim begins to make weekly visits to a bordello in Monterey, whose denizens offer him familiar banter and comradery. Jelka makes no objection to these presumed overnight business trips.
On one of his nocturnal adventures, Jim encounters a fellow rancher who informs him that one of his calves has been butchered by rustlers. Jim verifies the report himself, then returns home after midnight. He discovers Jelka's male cousin sleeping in bed with her. Jim reflects on the incestuous couping, then quietly retrieves his rifle and, without first waking the pair, shoots the intruder in the head. After reporting the incident to the local sheriff, Jim is released and no charges are brought against him, as is customary in that district.
Taking his bullwhip, he leads Jelka to the barn and flogs her mercilessly, to which she submits. The next morning Jelka contentedly prepares breakfast for Jim, apparently satisfied with her husband.
The story may be a dramatization of an actual event.
Literary critic Richard S. Hughes reports that Steinbeck had first intended to develop the story as part of his Pastures of Heaven saga, a story cycle published in 1932. âÂÂThe Murderâ is likely one of the two stories involving murder that Steinbeck had intended for The Pastures of Heaven. This is supported by the fact that in manuscript form, Steinbeck had situated the story in California's Corral de TierraâÂÂthe setting for the Pasture tales. He subsequently changed the location to Valle de Castillo, California.
âÂÂThe Murderâ has drawn criticism based on what appears to be a narrative rationalizing patriarchal violence as a method of disciplining a female spouse. The âÂÂenormously disturbingâ climax has been interpreted as racialist and anti-feminist, presenting a âÂÂsexual double standardâ in light of the husband's frequent enjoyment of prostitutes.
Biographer Warren French places the story in its historical context and identifies the story as more parody than an expression of ethnophobia. French writes:
In terms of narrative technique, Steinbeck introduces, as he does in the stories in The Pastures of Heaven, a new, and largely uninvolved character to provide a trigger for the story's climax: George, a fellow rancher, delivers the report that causes Jim to unexpectedly return home and discover his wife's perfidy. Steinbeck's decision to provide a highly graphic rendering of the murder is linked to Jim's disaffection from his Yugoslavian spouse and her âÂÂforeignness.â Hughes writes:
Literary critics Katherine M. and Robert E. Morsberger refer to âÂÂThe Murderâ as a fusion of âÂÂbiological naturalismâ with an amalgam of âÂÂmythical, Biblical and folktaleâ archetypes. The thematic elements of the tale reveal themselves in its imagery rather than its plot. The wife of Slavic ancestry, Jelka, is representative of this blending of symbol and concrete detail. Morsberger and Morsberger write:
The butchering of the a calf stolen from Jim's herd is linked to the murder of Jelka's lover in that both exhibit fairy-tale imagery combining âÂÂrealism with ritual.â Morsberger and Morsberger point out that the description of the rustling âÂÂsuggests some primitive blood riteâ as does Steinbeck's formulaic rendering of the homicide. Barbour faults âÂÂThe Murder" for failing to âÂÂcombine the gothic with observed mannersâ and charges that âÂÂthe story is fundamentally confusedâ in its thematic purpose. The âÂÂabsurdityâ is revealed in its denouement: âÂÂThere is a reconciliation between Jim and Jelka, and at the end they seem to have settled on a program of therapeutic beatings, and are thus forearmed for the future.âÂÂ