The Use of Violence: Pilate vs. Macon Dead (the Elder)

Today in class, we were comparing the differences between Milkman's father and Pilate.  An idea, which was difficult to express in chalkboard-worthy shorthand occurred to me, and we expanded upon the idea in class.  I am writing ideas about how both Macon Dead and Pilate are violent, but their violence is somehow different.

Macon Dead is portrayed as slapping his wife before he even drops his fork, because he is so angry in the moment.  Macon is not controlled at all in his action.  He is trying to communicate with his violence, but since he is communicating an emotion for his own good (instead of common sense for someone else's good like Pilate is doing), his violence does not have any sort of good effect.  His communication effort is aiming toward opinionated disapproval, and comes off as seeming abusive to Milkman.  (As a side note, when Milkman retaliates, his efforts are also unsuccessful at changing the situation because he is also trying to communicate opinionated disapproval, which in turn simply appears to his father as "abusive").

However, when Pilate uses violence (the knife incident), she is very calculated in her actions, and acts not in the moment of her rage, but as a method of controlled rage in place of her daughter's potential momentary anger that could backfire (like it does for Macon).  She acts violently to try and protect her family to try and make her family safer and happier.  She uses violence because she knows that potentially lethal actions will really make the threatening man listen to her.  Unlike Macon, when she wields the knife, she seems totally in charge of her actions.

The family dynamics of Pilate's household and Macon's  household tie into the way their violence manifests.  Since Pilate is all about equality and representation for her daughter and granddaughter (both of whom she treats relatively the same way in terms of importance: no hierarchy), she can act for their own benefit, but would never do anything to be violent to her own family members.  Yet if Pilate is the protector, then Macon is the dictator: he acts as if all of his family are subordinates, with his wife at the bottom of the ranking.  Thus, he can punish her for her actions, since she is so subordinate and she is not fitting his definition of how she should be thinking and talking.