Brighton Rock

Brighton rock

How is marriage presented in the novel through rose’s parents, Ida’s relationship with the invisible Tom, Pinkies parents and rose and Pinkies business?

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Last updated by Aslan
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This is only a short-answer space. I can make a general comment. As a gangster, Pinkie assumes that the only standard by which he will be judged is his toughness, understood as his willingness to engage in violence. This presumably would allow him, even at the tender age of seventeen, to gain recognition as an equal from older gang members; in an important sense, it would redeem the suffering and trauma he went through as a younger child, since it is on the basis of that hurt that he has such sociopathic capability to harm others. However, as he discovers, sexuality (specifically, heterosexuality) is the standard by which most people judge maturity. This is highly frustrating to him since much of his childhood trauma has to do with witnessing his parents engaging in intercourse, and his Catholic belief makes him regard sex as a sin. The only thing he can do is further indulge his violent inclinations to get away from this confusion with sex.