Structure

The story “The Vigilante” by John Steinbeck follows a single-event plot – the mob lynching of an African-American man suspected of a crime, seen from the perspective of one of the crowd, Mike.

Title

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Beginning

The short story begins in media res, after the mob has lynched the African-American man and before Mike meets the bartender. The exposition introduces us to the context and characters:

THE great surge of emotion, the milling and shouting of the people fell gradually to silence in the town park. (...) some members of the mob began to sneak away into the darkness. The park lawn was cut to pieces by the feet of the crowd. Mike knew it was all over. (p.1, ll. 1-8)

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Middle

The middle of the short story focuses on Mike’s encounter with a bartender with whom he discusses the event. The rising action begins with a flashback that Mike has about what happened: “Half an hour before, when he had been howling with the mob and fighting for a chance to help pull on the rope, then his chest had been so full that he had found he was crying.” (ll. 38-40)

As he leaves the park and the crowd, Mike’s interior conflict increases as he feels unable to walk home alone, suggesting that he is trying to avoid coming to terms with what he has done: “He hoped there would be people there, and talk, to remove this silence; and he hoped the men wouldn't have been to the lynching.” (p. 2, ll. 8-10)

As he enters a bar, he begins talking to the bartender about what happened. Through their dialogue, the author conveys a backstory about the lynching.

We find out how the crowd hurdled into the jail and how they probably killed the African-American man there: “ ‘One of the guys slugged him down and he got up, and then somebody else socked him and be went over and hit his head on the cement floor.’ ” (p. 3, ll. 14-16)

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Ending

The falling action shows Mike parting ways with Welch and entering his house where his wife scolds him because she suspects he was with a woman:

‘You been with a woman,’ she said hoarsely. ‘What woman you been with?’
Mike laughed. ‘You think you're pretty slick, don't you?’ (p. 5, ll. 3-5)

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