Themes

The main themes in “The Vigilante” by John Steinbeck are justice, violence and racism, and reason versus instinct. These themes are used to convey an authentic portrait of mob mentality and send a critical message about American society in the 1930s, a society that dehumanized African-Americans and defined violence against them as something ordinary.

Justice

The theme of justice is explored through the plot of the story and the attitude of the characters. In the story, an angry mob of white men decide to take justice into their own hands and lynch an African-American man accused of some unnamed crime (maybe a murder).

Their attitude suggests disrespect and distrust in the official law enforcement system. The characters verbally abuse the “sneaky lawyers” who often help African-Americans in prison; the characters believe that lawyers help black men get off their charges, but it is likely that these lawyers help the men who are innocent and falsely accused. In this case, no proof of the lynched man’s guilt is ever mentioned, and he has not been found guilty, suggesting that the mob’s attitude is instinctive and racist rather than logic and just.

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Violence and racism

Violence and racism are imbedded in the context of the story which takes place in 1930s America and presents the lynching of an African-American man.

The whole process of the lynching is described in a way that suggests extreme, out of control violence. The mob enters the jail, hits the man, takes his clothes off, hangs him, and burns him: “Half an hour before, when he had been howling with the mob and fighting for a chance to help pull on the rope…” (p. 1, ll. 38-40); “A guy with a twenty-two rifle went along the street and shot out the street lights. Well, then we rushed the jail doors and bust them.” (p. 3, ll. 1-3)

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Reason versus instinct

At a symbolic deeper level, the story is ultimately about reason versus primary, violent instincts. The writer conveys this theme through multiple contrasts between light and dark which illustrate Mike’s feelings: “His brain told him this was a terrible and important affair, but his eyes and his feelings didn't agree. It was just ordinary.” (p. 1, ll. 37-38)

The references to light in the short story are symbolic of the light of reason which would normally prevent people from irrationally acting in a violent way and lynching someone else.

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